Fritz.—You suppose, friend Jack, that your speech is very witty, while in reality it is only nonsense. Do you think then that all created beings are brought up alike? If so, papa should punish the first occurrence of ill behaviour in you, by passing a cord through your nose, like the buffalo, to render you more considerate and compliant.
Ernest.—We should soon, if this plan were adopted, see brother Jack with a bridle round his neck.
Father.—All of you, children, would be exposed to such discipline as this, if there were no other means: but the observation of Fritz is perfectly just; men are not brought up like brutes, nor are brutes trained like plants, though the education of all ever tends to the same end—that of subjecting the will to the yoke of necessity and duty, and to make them walk upright: for did not these trees bend to every wind till we raised and supported them. Every creature is capable of improvement, if not susceptible of perfection, that is to say, with care and cultivation, every being may become better, and acquire virtues and qualities which, left to himself and nature, he would be destitute of; thus I render our buffalo, and you your jackal, tame and manageable, by making them feel the power of man over brutes; thus I strive, my dear children, to lead you on towards perfection, by cultivating your understanding, giving you, as far as I am able, good lessons and good examples; so these trees, which at first were mere wild stocks, produced from kernels or seeds, and bearing only small imperfect fruits, have been made to produce those of an excellent quality by grafting on them a superior species. Come here, examine this branch; it is easy to see it has been inserted into this other branch; all the rest were lopped away, and this alone preserved; the whole of the sap or nutritious juice flowed then to this point, and thence diffused itself; and thus the wild sapling is become a fine fruitful tree, producing as good fruit as that from which the graft was taken.—Such is the process of ingrafting.
Fritz.—There are many things in it I do not yet understand; I have often heard of the inoculation of trees—is that the same as ingrafting them?
Father.—Nearly so; to inoculate is, I believe, the appropriate term for the operation, and graft that for the branch, or part inserted. According to the different species of trees, different methods and seasons are chosen; different terms are also adopted; and when the first insertion fails, a second, and even a third attempt is made.
Jack.—Can good fruits be grafted on every kind of tree, such as firs, or oaks?
Father.—No, my son; trees of an homogeneous kind must be selected.
Jack.—Ah! now that’s a fruit I am a stranger to; homogeneous—is it very good? are they to be found here? I long to taste them.
Father.—It is not a fruit, my dear child: it is, I confess, rather too learned a word, which I was wrong to use without explanation. It is derived or comes from the Greek, and signifies of the same nature, or bearing great similitude; thus an apple, a pear, a quince-tree, may be ingrafted on each other, because their wood and their seeds are homogeneous or resemble each other. It is the same with a variety of fruits having stones and kernels; the cherry, plum, peach, and almond-tree: to attempt to graft any of these on a pine or oak, would be useless; so with the best education every man is not constituted to be learned, to form an artist or a general.
Fritz.—You said, father, that the wild stocks or trees, produced only from seed, bear but indifferent fruits; how is it, then, with all those in our island—our good cocoas and guavas were not grafted, as no gardeners or other persons were here to perform the operation?