THE DURATION OF FRUIT TREES. 



307 



tree, when grafted on the quince, is reduced from 

 fifty years — its ordinary duration on the pear 

 stock — to about a dozen years. This," Mr 

 Downing says, " is well known to every practical 

 gardener, and it arises from want of affinity 

 between the quince stock and the pear graft. 

 The latter is rendered dwarf in its habits, bears 

 early, and perishes equally soon." We do not 

 quite agree with Mr Downing as to this very 

 great limitation ; but, admitting it even to be so 

 to a certain extent, we would, for many purposes 

 and reasons, retain the quince stock ; for longe- 

 vity, under certain conditions, is of secondary 

 consideration, more especially as pears upon 

 quince stocks produce their fruit so soon after 

 grafting, that there would not be much greater 

 trouble in keeping up a succession of young 

 trees than in doing the same with gooseberries 

 and currants. Following Mr Downing, who 

 says, " Next to this, the apparent decay of a 

 variety is often caused by grafting on unhealthy 

 stocks ; for although grafts of very vigorous 

 habit have frequently the power of renovating 

 in some measure, or for a time, the health of the 

 stock, yet the tree, when it arrives at a bearing 

 state, will, sooner or later, suffer from the dis- 

 eased or feeble nature of the stock. 



" Carelessness in selecting scions for grafting 

 is another fertile source of degeneracy in varie- 

 ties. Every good cultivator is aware that if 

 grafts are cut from the ends of old bearing 

 branches, exhausted by over-bearing, the same 

 feebleness of habit will, in a great degree, be 

 shared by the young graft ; and, on the contrary, 

 if the thrifty straight shoots that are thrown out 

 by the upright extremities, or the strong limb 

 sprouts, are selected for grafting, they insure 

 vigorous growth and healthy habit in the graft. 

 Finally, unfavourable soil and climate are power- 

 ful agents in deteriorating varieties of fruit trees. 

 Certain sorts that have originated in a cold 

 climate are often shortlived and unproductive 

 when taken to warmer ones, and the reverse. 

 This arises from a want of constitutional fitness 

 for a climate different from its natural one. For 

 this reason the Spitzenburgh apple soon degene- 

 rates if planted in the colder parts of New Eng- 

 land ; and almost all northern sorts, if trans- 

 planted to Georgia." And upon the same prin- 

 ciple, many fine apples of America will not thrive 

 in England, much less in Scotland. " But this 

 only proves that it is impossible to pass certain 

 natural limits of fitness for climate, and not that 

 the existence of the variety itself is in any way 

 affected by these local failures." 



Knight's doctrine was denied by Decandolle, 

 Mr George Lindley, and by many of the most 

 eminent vegetable physiologists. The former 

 of these says, " Varieties will last as long, and 

 remain unchanged as long, as man chooses to 

 take care of them ; " and of this we have suffi- 

 cient evidence in the case of the pearmain, which 

 is the oldest apple on record, and still showing 

 no symptoms of decay; and the same may be 

 said of the Cat's-head, London pippin, Winter 

 queening — or quoining, as written by some, and 

 probably more correctly. The latter observes, 

 in " Guide to the Orchard," p. 16, in reference 

 to the supposed degeneracy of the golden pip- 



pin, " I cannot for a moment agree to such an 

 opinion, because we have facts annually before 

 our eyes completely at variance with such an 

 assertion." Mr Knight even set a limit to the 

 existence of a variety, and observes, "that no 

 variety of apple will continue to exist more than 

 two hundred years." Nearly two hundred va- 

 rieties could be named that have continued thus 

 long, and without those discouraging symptoms 

 he anticipated. Downing remarks, and with 

 great good reason, " that the hardihood of any 

 variety depends greatly upon the circumstances 

 of its origin. When a new variety springs up 

 accidentally from a healthy seed in a semi-natu- 

 ral manner, like the Seckel, the Dix, and other 

 American native sorts, it will usually prove 

 the hardiest. It is as if it were an effort of 

 nature to produce a new individual out of the 

 materials in a progressive state, which garden 

 culture has afforded. Cross-bred seedlings — one 

 parent being of a hardy nature, and both healthy 

 — such as Knight's own seedlings, the monarch 

 and Dunmore pears — are next in hardiness. 

 Lastly, we rank varieties reared by Van Mons' 

 method — that of continually repeating reproduc- 

 tions. This, as Van Mons distinctly states, is 

 an enfeebling process, without any compensatory 

 element of vigour. Hence it follows, as a matter 

 of course, that seedlings of the fifth and sixth 

 generations, as are some of his varieties, must 

 in their origin be of feeble habit. Van Mons 

 himself was fully aware of this, and, therefore, 

 resorted to grafting by copulation "- — in fact, 

 root-grafting, as Downing remarks — "well know- 

 ing that on common stocks these new varieties 

 would in light soils soon become enfeebled and 

 decayed." Mr Downing seems very averse to 

 grafting on quince stocks, and we believe we can 

 clearly see through this, which, at first sight, 

 may seem prejudice on his part. The climate 

 of America is favourable (that is, around New 

 York, the sphere of Mr D.'s operations) to the 

 production of fruits, at a much earlier age of the 

 trees than with us in Britain ; and therefore 

 those means recommended by Mr Bivers, and 

 others of our best fruit-cultivators, are uncalled 

 for. With such a climate we would probably 

 also use the pear stocks ; but in a climate such 

 as ours in Britain, and in garden-ground highly 

 manured, we would decidedly, for certain pur- 

 poses, give the preference to quince stocks. 

 Downing has clearly taken Knight upon the 

 weak side of his theory when he says, " In 

 Knight's original essay on the decay of varieties, 

 he clearly states that the local decline of a 

 variety is mainly owing to neglect, and to graft- 

 ing on a bad stock. We allude to the fact, re- 

 peatedly verified, that healthy young shoots 

 taken from the roots of an old variety in apparent 

 decline, produce trees which are vigorous and 

 healthy. The decay," Knight says, "of the 

 power of life in the roots of seedling trees is 

 exceedingly slow comparatively with that in the 

 branches. Scions obtained from the roots of 

 pear-trees two hundred years old, afford grafts 

 which grow with great vigour, and which are 

 often covered with thorns like young seedling 

 stocks ; whilst other grafts, taken at the same 

 time from the extremities of the branches of 



