April 1, iseo. I 



JODENAL OP IIOBTIOUTiTURE AND COTTAGK GARDENER. 



225 



The Walnut is also an interesting tree to the cabinot-maker, 

 some of the choicciit descriptions of fiirnituro being maJe of 

 its wood, while the gunstook-maker is still more indebted to 

 it for supplying him with the best material used in his calling. 

 Tradition, anecdote, and poetry have also invested the Walnut 

 with an interest not possessed by other trees, and most people 

 know that barbarous distich, often quoted in gardening works, 

 yet seldom or never attempted to be explained, running thus — 



"A woman, n doR, and n Walnut troo, 

 Tho moro thoy'ro boaten the better they be." 



Leaving to others the task of explaining why the two first 

 mentioned should be improved by beating, I am by no means 

 certain but that the last is. A severe beating is, in a certain 

 sense, a rude pruning — small branches and short shoots are 

 broken oS ; and though I cannot possibly affirm that the tree 

 bears better in consequence, there is every probability of its 

 -doing so, or at all events the fruit it does bear may be better 

 in quality; in fact, it may derive all the benefit which to 

 another fruit tree may result from more Bcientitio pruning. 



The Walnut seems to thrive best in a dry stony soil, and 

 although it does not attain the same height as our largest Oaks 

 or Elms, it nevertheless becomes a tree of considerable size, 

 with a fine spreading top and proportionate limbs. Its hand- 

 some pinnated foliage is about the last to unfold itself iu the 

 spring, and the earliest to fall iu the autumn, and after the 

 leaves have fallen they turn to a darker hue than that of most 

 other trees, for some of the colouring matter which abounds in 

 the husk is also, probably, contained in the leaves. Walnut 

 trees, as a whole, resemble each other as much as most trees, 

 and make a uniform and agreeable avenue. As regards their 

 ■fruit, however, they differ more or less from each other, it 

 being larger in some than in other.s, and thicker or thinner in 

 the shell. Walnuts having the thinnest shell, though good at 

 the time of gathering, do not keep so well as the thicker- 

 ■ooated ones. 



The Walnut, whether as a useful or ornamental tree, deserves 

 to be more fre<juently planted than it is, and a few trees on a 

 dry steep bank will often be found more profitable than most 

 other crops in such a position, and the tree, too, possesses 

 ^eater beauty than many recent introductiona.^J. Eobson. 



THE PORTABLE ORCHARD. 



(Cuntinacd from page 210.) 



Buddinrj is performed as soon as mature buds are to be found 

 on the summer shoots. Very dry weather is unfavourable, 

 because the bark of the stock will not separate freely, and the 

 evaporation is excessive. Generally in this country we have a 

 large amount of rain during the latter half of July and begin- 

 ning g1 August, and this time, therefore, is generally the best 

 season for budding ; but the operation may be performed with 

 success as late as September, unless cold comes early. Stone 

 fruits are most commonly budded because the ordinary method 

 of grafting will not produce healthy trees. I do not think it 

 matters which method is used, and so use either, just as I 

 happen to be able to procure scions and stocks. The only case 

 where budding will not answer is that of reworking old trees. 

 We must remember, however, that a tree budded in summer is 

 no further advanced than one grafted the following spring. 



The nwdiis operandi is as follows : Take a young shoot of the 

 variety to be budded, having mature eyes iu the axils of the 

 leaves, and cut off the leaves within a quarter of an inch of the 

 petioles. The object of this is to stop evaporation from the 

 leaf. Next cut a slice of bark and wood about 1} inch long, 

 •containing one of the buds about the middle (ji/j. 11). Then, 

 with the spatula of the budding knife, remove the wood by 

 inserting the ivory under the bark at the upper end of the slip 

 ■containing the bud, and with a jerk force the wood out. You 

 must accomplish this by bending the wood and not the bark, 

 for it any damage is done in the separation you will thus insure 

 the mischief remaining with the wood. If two pieces of paper 

 are pasted together and you try to separate tliem, the one you 

 bend is sure to be torn. You cannot avoid bruising the bark 

 a little where you insert the spatula ; this is the reason for 

 choosing the upper end of the si.ice, for this end will be cut off 

 presently. If you have done this nicely you will see the pith 

 leading to the eye as a green prominence. Some gardeners 

 assert that unless the eye looks full in this way, the bud will 

 not grow ; but I cannot say that I believe this, for I have seen 

 eyes looking quite hollow grow vigorously. If the stock is dry, 

 then, no doubt, a hollow eye would be unlikely to be filled np 



before the bud had perished from want of sap. The slip so 

 prepared is called the "shield." Fiii. 12 shows the inside of 

 tho shield, and ;ii/. 13 is a representation of it in Bomi-profile. 



Fig.ll. Fig. 12. Fig. 13. 



Your next step is to cut a slit about an inch long with a 

 cross cut at the top, making a long T, as it were, on the stock 

 — the cuts should go just through the bark; then with the 

 spatula raise the bark on both sides by beginning at the angles 

 of the T {Jin. 14). 



Now insert the shield under the two angles of the flaps of 

 bark, and slip it down to the bottom of the longitudinal cut. 

 {Seejiti. 1.',, which represents the bud inserted, but the top of 

 the shield not cut oS.) If you 

 find it requires pressure you 

 may use the edge of the spatula 

 on the top of the shield, taking 

 care not to bruise any portion 

 that will reach so low as the 

 cross cut. 



Having got the shield into its 

 i place, cut off the upper end of 

 it by passing the knife again 

 over the cross cut. It is of con- 

 sequence that the cross cut of 

 the shield and stock fit exactly, 

 BO see that the shield has not 

 slipped before binding up. If 

 all is right, bind up firmly with 

 cotton wick, beginning at the 

 bottom, being cautious not to 

 tie the bud so as to prevent its 

 growing. By using a piece of 

 cotton about a foot long, and 

 placing the middle of it against 

 the stock and crossing back- 

 wards and forwards, there is no 

 difficulty in bringing one crossing just at the base of the leaf- 

 stalk and the next close above the bud, but leaving it clear. 

 No grafting wax is needed, and nothing more is to be done for 

 a month or six weeks, when the tie should be loosed and put 

 on again with open turns, and only tightly enough to keep on. 

 You will see whether the stock has swelled so as to make the 

 ligature likely to cut into the bark. As long as there is no 

 danger of this, the ligature should remain undisturbed. 



The stock is nut to be cut back at the time of budding, but 

 in the autumn it should be cut oft' within two eyes of the in- 

 serted bud. 



When the buds push in the spring the uppermost of the 

 natural buds starts first, and it must be left to make sis or 

 eight leaves, and then the end leaf and buds beyond must be 

 pinched off ; similarly the next natural bud must be stopped 

 at six or seven leaves. The inserted bud will now grow vigor- 

 ously, and its shoot must be tied to a stick as in grafting. 

 About the end of July, if the bud has grown so that its base is 

 causing a swelling in the stock, cut a deep notch in the stock 

 just where the bud-shoot comes from it — the object of this is 

 to enable the shoot to deposit wood in tho notch — and then in 

 the spring following the top of the stock (or the snag, as it is 

 called), is cut off by a cut from the side opposite to the notch, 

 and the next season will see the wound healed ; but if yon 

 make no notch, and cut the snag off in the autumn, you will 

 find it no easy matter to get the wound healed, and very ofteu 

 a considerable portion of the stock opposite the scion will die, 

 and have to be cut away time after time. I defer cutting off 



Fig. 14. 



Fig. 15. 



