Ormesby, St. Margaret, Norfolk.
_Grafts and the Parent Tree_ (Vol. vii., p. 436.).--In order to insure the
success of grafts, it is material that they be inserted on congenial
stocks: delicate-growing fruits require dwarf-growing stocks; and free
luxuriant-growing trees require strong stocks. To graft scions of delicate
wooded trees on strong stocks, occasions an over-supply of sap to the
grafts; and though at first they seem to flourish, yet they do not endure.
A few examples of this sort may lead to an opinion, that "grafts, after
some fifteen years, wear themselves out;" but the opinion is not (generally
speaking) well founded. I have for many years grafted the old _Golden
Pippin_ on the _Paradise_ or _Doucin_ stock, and found it to answer very
well, and produce excellent fruit. Taunton has long been famous for its
_Nonpareils_, which are there produced in great excellence and abundance.
The Cornish _Gilliflower_, one of our very best apples, was well known in
the time of King Charles I.; and, as yet, shows no symptoms of decay: that
fruit requires a strong stock.
The ancient _Ribston Pippin_ was a seedling:
"It has been doubted by some, whether the tree at Ribston Hall was an
original from the seed: the fact of its not being a grafted tree has
been satisfactorily ascertained by Sir Henry Goodricke, the present
proprietor, by causing suckers from its root to be planted out--which
have set the matter at rest that it was not a grafted tree. One of
these suckers has produced fruit in the Horticultural Garden at
Chiswick."--Lindley's _Guide to the Orchard and Kitchen Garden_, 1831,
p. 81.