ON THE EXPEDIENCY AND EFFECTS OF GRAFTING. 
363 
Another advantage arising from the practice of grafting, is the cer¬ 
tainty of perpetuating the true kind of fruit; for although it has been 
affirmed that the qualities of pears are deteriorated by being grafted on 
the quince, and that some sorts of apples are impaired in quality, and 
altered in colour, by being worked on certain stocks, such reports have 
not hitherto been confirmed ; and, therefore, it appears that whatever 
may be the state or quality of the sap, as supplied by the roots of the 
stock, it very soon becomes assimilated to that of the graft, if indeed 
any assimilation at all be necessary. 
A good deal of skill is, however, necessary in adapting the scions to 
the proper stocks, in order to assist diminutive growth, by placing on 
stronsr-growins; stocks, or the reverse. The habit or manner of growth 
of the tree whence the graft is taken, is conveyed along with it; and 
not only the permanent habit, as is exemplified by the weeping-ash, 
but accidental flexures which sometimes occur in upright-growing trees, 
if these bowed shoots are used for grafts, and it is very likely that the 
future shoots from that graft will be also drooping, or unusually bent. 
We have elsewhere remarked that this circumstance happens sometimes 
in working the Jargonelle Pear. This tree, in favourable situations, 
is sometimes apt to produce very strong summer shoots, which, from 
the weight of their foliage, or some other cause, droop downward in a 
waving direction. These, if used for grafts, make very unsightly 
maiden plants, and afterward require much training to get them into 
shape and moderate growth. 
Any other peculiarity of growth or habit of the mother-tree is cer¬ 
tainly conveyed along with grafts produced by it; and, moreover, it 
has been said that, not only disease, but even the age and decrepi¬ 
tude of the parent, are conveyed to the young trees raised from its 
shoots. 
This idea was first promulgated by T. A. Knight, Esq., President 
of the Horticultural Society of London, and from a belief that young 
trees actually inherited the infirmities of their aged parents, which 
accounted for the general failure of apple-trees that happened about 
the time that gentleman wrote his “ Treatise on the Apple and 
Pear” (about 1795). To strengthen his opinion, he argued that, as 
these fruit-trees are only varieties, they had, as such, only a limited 
period of life; and when that period had elapsed, the 'whole of any 
given variety, old, and young, and middle aged, dropped to decay 
together. 
These new doctrines produced a strong sensation, particularly among 
nurserymen who happened to have large stocks of the proscribed 
varieties; and so feasible were Mr. Knight’s representations, that many 
