Speechly, who has very strenuously recommended the attempt to raise new varieties of vines by seed, and who seems to have had a very clear idea of the advantage which Mr. Knight's experiments have since ascertained to be obtainable by a mixture of varieties, affirms, that by judicious management, seedling vines will bear fruit the third or fourth year. There will, therefore, be no great loss of time in ascertaining the qualities of their fruit. The management be prescribes, is exactly the same as that for a cutting.
As soon as the wood of the seedling plant is ripe, though the quality of the fruit is not ascertained, it will be advantageous to plant a few cuttings from it; that, if it should turn out a valuable variety, a greater quantity of plants may be the sooner obtained.
It is, however, one of the strongest facts which support Mr. Knight's theory, that he has found it impossible to anticipate the natural period of a seedling, apples bearing, by grafting a cutting from it on a bearing tree; and it is, therefore, most probable, that it would be equally unsuccessful with the vine.
The length at which I have treated this part of the subject, has swelled the chapter to a size disproportionate to the other divisions of the work, but not to the opinion I have of its importance. It
