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XXXII. Upon Grafting the Walnut Tree. By Thomas Andrew 

 Knight, Esq. F. R. S. President. 



Read April 17, 1832. 



The Walnut Tree appears hitherto to have effectually baffled, 

 under all ordinary circumstances, the art of the grafter. The in- 

 serted scions wither, and die, without apparently making any effort 

 to unite themselves 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 diffi- 

 cult 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 every where planted. 



It must, however, be admitted, that ungrafted seedling plants 

 usually afford the finest trees : but if the grafts be taken from young 

 seedling trees, 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 then- 

 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 consi- 

 derable age. One of these, which grows upon an estate that belongs 



