DO THE RACES OF FRUIT TREES WEAR OUT I 
237 
DO THE RACES OF FRUIT TREES WEAR 
OUT? 
In the May No. of the American Agriculturist, I 
And the following statement:—“ If fruit trees are 
properly taken care of, they will never run out, 
any more than animals or man himself.” Either I 
misunderstand you, or you misunderstand me. You 
certainly do not mean to he understood that a tree 
will live for ever if it be properly taken care of. 
My idea is that a tree has a limit as to age, and that 
in propagating any particular kind of fruit by in¬ 
grafting or inoculating, you do not renew, you 
merely continue. Am I to understand you as'con- 
. troverting this position ? Do you mean to be un¬ 
derstood as asserting that any particular kind of 
fruit, the Newtown pippin, for instance, may be 
kept in existence for ever ? My idea is, that 
nature has, in the vegetable as well as the animal 
kingdom, provided one, and only one way for the 
renewal of life, and that is by the seed. That by 
ingrafting you merely continue what is already in 
existence—that the tree which you obtain by in¬ 
grafting, is no younger than the tree from which 
that particular variety was originally obtained. 
This is the idea I intended to convey, and this I 
understand you to controvert and pronounce “ false 
doctrine.” Your reasons for this conclusion I 
should be particularly pleased to see. 
Henry W. Edwards. 
New Haven , June 4 th, 1846. 
In reply to the above, we would first inquire, 
Whether it is true that; when a tree or other peren¬ 
nial plant becomes unhealthy from old age, all the 
offspring previously obtained from it by grafts or 
cuttings, in all parts of the world, becomes un¬ 
healthy too ? Or whether such a doctrine is a 
reasonable inference from known facts ? Or is it 
forced upon us by evidence, although not deducibfe 
from mere reason ? This appears to have been an 
important question to a labored advocacy for the 
last half century, who contend that multiplication 
by seeds is the only mode of propagation known 
among plants, and that all other kinds of increase 
are artificial, and lead to degeneracy. To us, we 
think it would be difficult to find an hypothesis 
more at variance with facts, and which cannot 
otherwise be regarded as entirely destitute of 
foundation. 
The first person who advocated this theory was 
Mr. T. A. Knight, late President of the London 
Horticultural Society. In the latter part of the last 
century, he found that the orchards of Hereford¬ 
shire no longer contained healthy trees, of certain 
varieties of apple, which were said to have flou¬ 
rished 50 years before; and, failing in his attempt 
to restore health to such varieties, by grafting, as¬ 
sumed that old age had overtaken them, and that 
they were past renovation. Thence he extended 
the theory to all other plants; and since, various 
writers, not excepting Sir Humphrey Davy, perhaps 
out of respect to Mr Knight’s great name, rather 
than from any correct examination of the facts for 
themselves, have blindly adopted his views. 
Through the kindness of Mr. Browne, we have 
received in advance of publication, the sheets of his 
smew work on the “ Trees of America,” from which 
we make the following extract, premising that this 
alone would be conclusive, had we no other data 
upon which to found our argument. 
On the subject of grafting the apple, he says: 
“ A theory was advanced many years ago in Eng¬ 
land, and has lately been revived in that country, 
and is gaining ground in America, that the ‘ chance 
of life in a scion is affected by the chance of life in the 
original seedling, which began the species ,*’ that is, 
when the natural period for the decline of the parent 
tree has arrived, the scions taken from it will also 
be found in a declining state, though growing upon 
stocks in other respects vigorous. The advocates 
of this theory contend, that each particular variety 
of apple has its period of vigor and decline, and its 
duration cannot be protracted by grafting beyond a 
certain limit; and what they conceive to be very 
remarkable is, that within that natural limit, the 
grafts partake both of the vigor and decrepitude of 
the parent tree or variety. Although the period of 
duration is not known with any precision, it is 
thought to be longer in some varieties than in 
others. It is generally supposed, however, that it 
never much exceeds two hundred years. It seems 
that this opinion has chiefly arisen from the fact, 
that many kinds of the most celebrated European 
varieties have long since disappeared from their 
catalogues, and can now no longer be found; while 
many others, which were much esteemed in their 
* palmy days’ of bearing, are fast approaching to 
extinction, and will soon no longer exist. Although 
the above hypothesis may seem plausible enough in 
itself, yet, we cannot but remark, that, the want of 
durability of the varieties in question does not apply 
to every set of scions; for many sorts of apple, as 
well as several other kinds of fruit, appear to have 
been readily propagated by means of successive 
scions, from the times of our forefathers. For in¬ 
stance, the Newtown pippin, the parent stock of 
which has been dead for forty years, has been suc¬ 
cessfully cultivated for at least one hundred years 
from before that period, and is still to be met with 
in the highest perfection in the markets, both at 
home and abroad. Furthermore, experience has 
shown, that many of the scions of deteriorated 
varieties have flourished for a time after grafting, 
and afterwards have appeared to die, not from old 
age, but from disease. Thus Sharfock, who wrote 
in 1672, inquired ‘ whether the canker in pippins 
arose not from incongruous grafting;’ and Miller 
and Knight, of more recent times, each complained 
that pippins became cankered from a similar cause. 
Nevertheless, we do not wish to be understood, that 
the age of a tree is of little moment in the selection 
of scions; for, when a tree is evidently on the decline, 
an experienced rturseryman would not cull scions 
from it by choice, lest they should prove sickly and 
diseased; neither would he take them from a young 
tree, before it had arrived at its proper period of 
bearing. For every cutting taken from the apple, 
and probably from many other trees, will be affected 
by the state of the parent stock. If too young to 
produce fruit, it will grow with vigor, but will not 
blossom before it has passed through its successive 
periods of ripening wood; and, if too old, it will 
immediately bring forth fruit, but will never make 
a healthy tree. It may further be stated, that 
stocks often so much influence the scions engrafted 
