Preview – Apple Story
‘Grafting: Giving Nature a Helping Hand’
The skill of grafting, to preserve and propagate valued apple varieties, was learnt in ancient times
To conserve varieties and rejuvenate old trees, apple trees are still grafted in essentially the same way today as they have been for centuries.
‘Grafting: Giving Nature a Helping Hand’ contains an extract from a book written four hundred years ago by Yorkshire cleric William Lawson that explains how to graft.
Nurseryman John Worle also shares his vast experience of grafting. Filmed by Christopher Preece for Apples & People in 2022, John demonstrates the process described by Lawson upon an old cider apple tree in one of the Museum of Cider’s orchards in Herefordshire.
The story is illustrated with paintings courtesy of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and the Bayerische Staatsgemaldesammlungen in Munich, an illustration from the collection of the British Museum in London, and a grafting knife from the Museum of Cider in Hereford, as well as the frontispiece from Lawson’s 1618 book ‘A New Orchard and Garden’.
