Upon Grafting the Walnut Tree. 



215 



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 suc- 

 cessful 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. 



The fluid, which the seeds of the Walnut tree contain, when that 

 is fully prepared to germinate in the spring ; and which was depo- 

 sited within it for the purpose of affording nutriment to the seminal 

 buds, or plumule, in the preceding autumn, is sweet, as in a great 

 many other kinds of seeds : but during germination this becomes, 

 in the seed of the Walnut tree, bitter and acrid. Similar changes 

 take place in the sap which is deposited, for analogous purposes, in 

 the bark and wood of the Walnut tree, during the germination of 

 its buds ; and I was led by the discoveries of M. Dutrochet to 

 infer the probability, that the sap during, and subsequent to, its 

 chemical changes, might acquire new and more extensive vital 

 powers. I therefore resolved to suffer the buds of my grafts, and 

 those of the stocks, to which I proposed to apply them, to unfold, 

 and to grow during a week or ten days ; then to destroy all the 

 young shoots and foliage, and to graft at a subsequent period. A 

 very severe frost in the morning of the 7th of May saved me the 

 trouble of destroying the young shoots ; but it deranged my expe- 



