(Vol. vii., p. 365.)
I was surprised to find it stated as "a fact" by MR. INGLEBY, "that grafts,
after some fifteen years, wear themselves out." A visit to one of the great
orchard counties would assure him of the existence of tens of thousands of
grafted apple and pear trees, still in a healthy state, and from forty to
fifty years old, and more. There are grafted trees of various kinds in this
country, which to my own knowledge are upwards of sixty years old; and I
have little doubt but that there are some a good deal older.
The ancient Ribstone pippin, which stood in Ribstone Park, till it died in
1835, was believed to have been grafted. Such was the opinion of one of the
gardeners there; and a writer in the _Gardeners' Chronicle_, 1845, p. 21.,
states that in 1830 he fell in with the Ribstone pippin in great abundance
in Switzerland, in the valley of Sarnen; and he remarks that it is more
probable this apple was introduced into England from that country, than the
reverse. The question has not been conclusively settled.
Notwithstanding "the belief that the graft perishes when the parent tree
decays" is pronounced by MR. INGLEBY to be a fond superstition, yet there
are certain facts, well known to orchard growers, which give some warrant
for it. Without committing myself altogether to this doctrine, I will state
a few of them.
It is well known that no cider or perry fruit is so good, on first being
introduced, as it is after fifteen or twenty years of cultivation. A
certain period seems to be required to mature the new sort, and bring it to
its full vigour (long after it is in full bearing) before it is at its
best. The tree, with all its grafted progeny, will last, perhaps fifty,
perhaps more than one hundred years, in a flourishing state, and then they
will begin everywhere to decay; nor has any device yet been successful in
arresting that general decay.
Witness the rise, progress, and fall of the _Forest Stire_ of
Gloucestershire, the _Foxwhelp_ and _Redstreak_ of Herefordshire, the
_Golden Pippin_, and, more lately, the _Ribstone Pippin_, of which there is
an increasing complaint, not to mention many others in the same condition.
The first-named apple is very nearly extinct, and the small quantity of the
fruit that is still to be had fetches enormous prices.
Whether this decay be owing to _grafting_, is a question which can be
decided only by the future behaviour of the suckers from the original tree,
several of which from the tree at Ribstone Park are now growing at Chiswick
and elsewhere.
I am aware that Dr. Lindley combats very eagerly the doctrine that
varieties of the apple and pear, or indeed of any tree, die naturally of
old age; but the only incontrovertible fact which he adduces in support of
his argument, is the existence of the French _White Beurré_ pear, which has
flourished from time immemorial. His denial of the decay of the _Golden
Pippin_, the _Golden {437} Harvey_, and the _Nonpareil_, will not, I think,
be allowed to be just by the experience of your readers; the existence of
the last-named apple for three centuries, supposing it to be true, has not
secured it exemption from the general fate.