Spontaneous will produce an wholfome draught.
Let art correct thy breed: from parent bough
A Cyon meetly fever: after, force
A into the crabftock's clofe-wrought grain
way
By wedges, and within the living wound
Enclose the fofter twig; nor over-nice
Refufe with thy own hands around to spread
The binding clay: ere-long their differing veins
Unite, and kindly nourishment convey
To the new pupil; now he shoots his arms
With quickest growth; now shake the teeming trunk,
Down rain th' impurpled balls, ambrofial fruit.
Whether the Wilding's fibres are contriv'd
To draw th' earth's purest spirit, and resist
It's feculence, which in more porous stocks
Of Cyder-plants finds paffage free, or else
The native verjuice of the Crab, deriv'd
Through th' infix'd graff, a grateful mixture forms
Of tart and sweet; whatever be the cause,
This doubtful progeny by nicest tastes
Expected best acceptance finds, and pays
Largest revenues to the orchat-lord.
Some think the Quince and Apple would combine In happy union; others fitter deem
The Sloe-ftem bearing Sylvan Plumbs auftere.
Who knows but both may thrive? howe'er, what lofs
To try
the powers of both, and fearch how far
Two different natures may concur to mix
In close embraces, and ftrange offspring bear?
Thou 'It find that plants will frequent changes try,
Undamag'd, and their marriageable arms
Conjoin with others. So Silurian plants
Admit the Peach's odoriferous globe,
And Pears of fundry forms; at different times
Adopted Plumbs will alien branches grace;
And men have gather'd from the Hawthorn's branch
Large Medlars, imitating regal crowns.
Nor is it hard to beautify each month
With files of particolor'd fruits, that please
The tongue, and view, at once: So Maro's Mufe,
Thrice facred Mufe! commodious precepts gives
Inftructive to the fwains, not wholly bent
On what is gainful: fometimes the diverts
From folid counfels, fhews the force of love
In savage beasts; how virgin face divine
Attracts the hapless youth through storms and waves,
Alone, in deep of night: Then she defcribes
The Scythian winter, nor difdains to fing
How under ground the rude Riphæan race
Mimick brisk Cyder with the brakes product wild;
Sloes pounded, Hips, and Servis' harfhett juice.
Let fage experience teach thee all the arts
Of grafting and in-eyeing; when to lop
The flowing branches; what trees answer best
From root, or kernel: fhe will beft the hours
Of harvest, and feed-time declare; by her
The different qualities of things were found,.
And fecret motions; how with heavy bulk
Volatile Hermes, fluid and unmoist,
Mounts on the wings of air; to her we owe
The Indian weed *, unknown to ancient times,
Nature's choice gift, whose acrimonious fume
Extracts fuperfluous juices, and refines
The blood distemper'd from its noxious falts;
Friend to the spirits, which with vapors bland
It gently mitigates, companion fit
Of pleasantry, and wine; nor to the bards
Unfriendly, when they to the vocal shell
Warble melodious their well-labor'd fongs.
She found the polish'd glafs, whose small convex
Enlarges to ten millions of degrees
The mite, invisible elfe, of Nature's hand
Least animal; and fhews, what laws of life
The cheefe-inhabitants observe, and how
Fabrick their manfions in the harden'd milk,
Wonderful artifts! but the hidden ways
Of Nature would't thou know? how first the frames
All things in miniature? thy fpecular orb
Apply to well-dissected kernels; lo!
Strange forms arife, in each a little plant
Unfolds its boughs: obferve the flender threads
Of firft beginning trees, their roots, their leaves,
In narrow feeds defcrib'd; thou'lt wondering fay,
An inmate orchat every apple boats.
Thus all things by experience are difplay'd,
And most improv'd. Then fedulously think
To meliorate thy ftock; no way, or rule,
Be unaffay'd; prevent the morning star
Affiduous, nor with the western fun
Surceafe to work; lo! thoughtful of thy gain,
Not of my own, I all the live-long day
Confume in meditation deep, reclufe
From human converfe, nor, at fhut of eve,
Enjoy repofe; but oft at midnight lamp
Ply my brain-racking ftudies, if by chance
Thee I may counsel right; and oft this care
Disturbs me flumbering. Wilt thou then repine
To labour for thyself and rather choose
To lie fupinely, hoping Heaven will blefs
Thy flighted fruits, and give thee bread unearn'd?
'Twill profit, when the fork, fworn foe of fnakes,.
Returns, to fhew compaffion to thy plants,
Fatigu'd with breeding. Let the arched knife
Well sharpen'd now affail the spreading fhades
Of vegetables, and their thirsty limbs
Diffever for the genial moisture, due
To apples, otherwife mifpends itfelf
In barren twigs, and for th' expected crop,
Nought but vain shoots, and empty leaves abound.
When fwelling buds their odorous foliage fhed,
And gently harden inte fruit, the wife
Spare not the little offsprings, if they grow
Redundant; but the thronging clusters thin
By kind avulfion: elfe the ftarveling brood,
Void of fufficient fuftenance, will yield
A flender autumn; which the niggard foul
Too late fhall weep, and curfe his thrifty hand,
That would not timely eafe the ponderous boughs.
It much conduces, all the cares to know Of gardening, how to scare nocturnal thieves, And how the little race of birds that hop From spray to spray, fcooping the coftlieft fruit Infatiate, undifturb'd. Priapus' form Avails but little; rather guard each row With the falfe terrors of a breathlefs kite. This done, the timorous flock with swifteft wing Scud through the air; their fancy reprefents His mortal talons, and his ravenous beak Destructive; glad to shun his hostile gripe, They quit their thefts, and unfrequent the fields. Befides, the filthy fwine will oft invade Thy firm inclosure, and with delving fnout The rooted forest undermine: forthwith Halloo thy furious mastiff, bid him vex The noxious herd, and print upon their ears, A fad memorial of their past offence.
The flagrant Procyon will not fail to bring Large fhoals of flow house-bearing fnails that creep O'er the ripe fruitage, paring flimy tracts In the fleek rinds, and unprest Cyder drink. No art averts this peft; on thee it lies, With morning and with evening hand to rid The preying reptiles; nor, if wife, wilt thou Decline this labour, which itself reward's
With pleafing gain, whilft the warm limbec draws Salubrious waters from the nocent brood.. Myriads of wafps now alfo clustering hang, And drain a spurious honey from thy groves,
|