CULTIVATION OF WALNUTS. 
149 
produced from the seed alone, without degenerating. The nuts 
steeped in water for eight days, are planted in the beginning of 
March, and the shoot makes its appearance on the surface of the soil, 
generally about forty days afterwards. If the proprietor thinks pro¬ 
per to engraft the trees, the process is performed when the plant is 
five years old, by the method, if I mistake not, of stock-grafting. The 
head being cut off horizontally to a convenient height, is partially 
slit or opened in its circumference, and three or four scions are in¬ 
troduced into distinct slits, and retained firmly without the aid of 
any binding; but clay mortar, worked up with rice husks, is put 
round it, and kept from being washed away, by being enveloped in 
broad strips of birch bark. 
In Cashmere, the Walnut-tree begins to fruit when seven years 
old, and two or three more years elapse before it is in full-bearing. 
This is conceived to be the case when, in a single tree, the average 
annual number of nuts brought to maturity, amounts to about twen¬ 
ty-five thousand. It has been observed here, that after a few seasons 
of full-bearing, walnut-trees fall off in producing fruit, and run with 
great luxuriance to leaf and branch, to which condition the Cash¬ 
meres apply the appellation of must ; and to remedy it, cut over the 
top branches, bringing the tree to the state of a pollard. During the 
year following, shoots and leaves alone are produced, which are suc¬ 
ceeded by a crop of fruit in that ensuing, so abundant as to compen¬ 
sate for the absence of nuts in the preceding year; and, in a few 
years, when the yield becomes less considerable, the process is re¬ 
peated, and always with the same success. The cut ends of the 
branches swell into knots or knobs, which are somewhat unsightly, 
and of which the structure has not been accurately examined. 
Cashmere is, probably, indebted to accidental observation, rather 
than to previous reasoning, for the introduction of this useful prac¬ 
tice, for it has not induced the adoption of the same, in regard to 
other fruit trees. The hazel, as far as it has fallen under my obser¬ 
vation, is here so luxuriant in the production of arborage, (leaf and 
branch,) that it rarely brings to perfection its nuts, scarcely of the 
size of peas, hidden within the long husks of large clusters; nor has 
any attempt been made, as in the walnut, to improve their quality 
by grafting or pruning. The vine scales the summit of the poplar, 
and is never restrained by pruning, though compared with it; those 
of Europe, either on trellis, or on the wall, sink into insignificance. 
The walnuts which fall green, furnish the material for a colour of 
the same tint, which, however, is not permanent; but the husks of 
the ripe fruit are sold to the dyers, for the basis of a fixed black. 
