Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 003.djvu/258

 relish in them. Yet probably hot nourishments, whether in Juyces or Earths, may digest the Sap, and consequently the Fruit better in Trees of flashy Fruit, than in others, and vice versâ. In the meantime to change the Taste of Fruit, the probablest way may be, though not very hopeful, to bore the Roots and the Body downwards and transverse, and to fill the holes with plenty of its own or some other Tree's Sap, in which some Aromatick substances have been strongly infus'd,

To the 15th.If no rain come to the roots of trees at all, nor other moisture, they will not grow; but if the points of the roots only be water'd, though all the rest remain dry (as it happens naturally in Firre-trees) they may grow very well. For the points of the roots shoot out yearly a sharp-pointed tender part, somewhat like the sharp bud on the end of a sprig, by which the root not only enlarges it self in the earth, as the Branch does in the air, but also receives its nourishment. And that tender part moves its self towards the best-moistned and the tenderest earth: So that to promote the growth of trees, 'tis very effectual to loosen the earth of trees about the points of the roots; and there also to minister nourishment or proper liquors; and this in trenches, where the amendment may remain, rather than above; throwing out the dead mould out of the trenches, and spreading it above to kill weeds.

To the 16th.The roots of Plum-and Lime-trees inoculated upon, will shoot out their buds, as I have experimented. I failed of success in the Walnut, in regard, I think, I had not well provided for what was necessary to keep the part inoculated from the moisture of the earth and rain. To make a successful tryal, suppose in an Alkermes-Oak (a delicate tree, and difficult to be otherwise inoculated upon;) Let the root, to be grafted on. be bared in the fall of the leaf, taken out of the earth, and at convenient distance from the Body of the tree, bow'd, and raised a foot above the earth, and then the points and fibres of the root carefully laid about with fresh earth, and water'd till they take well, and till the root rais'd in the air have a bark like that of a branch of a tree; which probably it will get in the next season of Inoculation. The Inoculation it self is made on the part raised, after the ordinary way. When 'tis done, let it be Rh