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LXXII. UPON GRAFTING THE WALNUT-TREE. 

 \Read before the HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, April llth, 1832.] 



THE walnut-tree appears hitherto to have effectually baffled, under all 

 ordinary circumstances, the art of the grafter. The inserted scions 

 wither and die, without apparently making any effort to unite them- 

 selves to the stock, or to draw nutriment from it ; and consequently the 

 value of every superior variety has been limited by its use to the possessor 

 of the original seedling-tree. It is true that a part of the seedling 

 offspring of every fine variety generally inherits a portion of its good 

 qualities ; but I have found it extremely difficult to obtain from seed 

 good varieties of sufficiently early habits to ripen well in this vicinity, 

 except in very warm seasons ; and I doubt much whether the value of 

 the crop of walnuts, throughout the British Islands, be one-third as 

 great as it would be if proper varieties were everywhere planted. 



It must, however, be admitted, that, amongst fruit-trees in general, 

 ungrafted seedling plants usually afford the finest trees : but if the grafts 

 be taken from young seedlings, or from scions which have sprung out 

 of the trunks, or large branches, of trees of greater age, and those be 

 varieties of luxuriant and healthy growth, the vigour and durability of 

 the future tree will not be much diminished. The more early production 

 of fruit, by grafted trees, will necessarily, to some extent, impede their 

 growth ; because a portion of their sap must be expended in giving 

 nourishment to such fruit : but the largest pear-trees which I have ever 

 seen must have sprung from grafts taken from trees of considerable age. 

 One of these, which grows upon an estate that belongs to me, a Barland 

 pear-tree, (an old variety now nearly expended,) has been known to afford, 

 in the same season, two hundred and seventy-five gallons of perry. 



The walnut-tree may be propagated with more success by budding. 

 I have succeeded tolerably well in some seasons, and in one season 

 perfectly well ; but in several others not a single inserted bud has been 

 found alive in the following year, though all had been inserted with the 

 greatest care. 



I therefore communicate the following mode of grafting the walnut- 

 tree, which I found in the last season most perfectly successful under 

 many unfavourable circumstances ; and which mode, for reasons which I 

 shall proceed to state, will, I believe, point out the means of propagating 

 some other species of trees with facility, which have not hitherto been 

 so propagated without difficulty and uncertainty. 



