Page:The Swiss Family Robinson (Kingston).djvu/240

 “That's not true,” replied Franz, gravely, “but there are wild and tame trees, the wild ones grow out in the woods like the crab-apples, and the tame ones in the garden like the pears and peaches at home. Which are these, papa?”

“They are not wild,” I replied, “but grafted or cultivated, or, as you call them, tame trees. No European tree bears good fruit until it is grafted!” I saw a puzzled look come over the little boy's face as he heard this new word, and I hastened to explain it. “Grafting,” I continued, “is the process of inserting a slip or twig of a tree into what is called an eye; that is, a knot or hole in the branch of another. This twig or slip then grows and produces, not such fruit as the original stock would have borne, but such as the tree from which it was taken would have produced. Thus, if we have a sour crab tree, and an apple tree bearing fine ribston pippins, we would take a slip of the latter, insert it in an eye of the former, and in a year or two the branch which would then grow would be laden with good apples.”

“But,” asked Ernest, “where did the slips of good fruit trees come from, if none grow without grafting?”

“From foreign countries,” I replied; “it is only in the cold climate of our part of the world that they require this grafting; in many parts of the world in more southern latitudes than ours, the most luscious fruit trees are indigenous to the soil, and flourish and bear sweet wholesome fruit, without the slightest care or attention being bestowed upon them; while in England and Germany, and even in France, these same trees require the utmost exertion of horticultural skill to make them bring forth any fruit whatever. Thus, when the Romans invaded England they found there nothing in the way of fruit trees but the crab-apple, nut bushes, and bramble-bushes, but by grafting on these, fine apples, filberts, and raspberries were produced, and it was the same in our own dear Switzerland—all our fruit trees were imported.”