New York AcxRicultural Experiment Station. 519 



" With regard to nursery grafting and bencli grafting roots, all that can 

 be said in their favor is that they are fairly good methods when bench 

 grafting cuttings is impracticable. They enable ns to produce rooted grafts 

 with stocks whicli, owing to the difficulty with which they root, are very 

 diflScult to bench graft as cuttings. By their means we are enabled to 

 utilize resistant cuttings, which are too small to bench graft, and a larger 

 percentage of well-grown grafted vines is obtained from the nursery. 



" On t1ie other hand, as the stock is at least two years old when grafted 

 there is reason to fear that with some stocks many unions will fail as the 

 vines become older. The vines are larger when they are taken from the 

 nursery, wliich increases the cost of removal, and there is little if any gain 

 in growth over bench grafts when planted in the vineyard. Finally, the 

 method requires a year longer and is in every way more expensive. 



" Of field grafting, nothing favorable can be said except that it is more 

 generally understood and the expense and work are spread over seA'eral 

 years instead of being principally in the first. Many of its disadvantages 

 may be inferred from wliat has already been said of the advantages of bench 

 grafting. The principal are the extreme difficulty of obtaining a perfect 

 stand, the trouble with cion roots and stock suckers, the impossibility of 

 detecting imperfect unions until the vines die, and finally the greater ulti- 

 mate cost." 



To produce cuttings for stocks mother vines must be planted and 

 cultivated. Here, again, Bioletti gives excellent advice from 

 which the following are extracts : 



"In planting a vineyard of resistant vines for the production of cuttings 

 to be used for grafting it is important that a suitable soil and location 

 be chosen. In order to produce a large crop of good cuttings the soil 

 should be naturally rich or heavily fertilized. The location should be one 

 in which the wood always ripens "early and thoroughly. Spring frosts are 

 almost as unfavorable to the production of good cuttings as of grapes. 



" All the usual stocks are vigorous growers, and as they are planted in 

 fertile soil they should be given plenty of space. A distance of 9 feet by 

 9 feet or S feet by 10 feet is quite close enough. This will give about 500 

 vines to the acre. As a good vine properly cared for should produce 150 

 feet of good wood for bench grafting, the product of an acre would be about 

 75.000 cuttings. 



" The varieties of resistant stocks which will in all probability be most used 

 in California are Rupestris St. George (du Lot), Riparia X Rupestris 3306, 

 Riparia X Rupestris 3309, Riparia Solonis 1616, Mourvedre X Rupestris 

 1202, Aramon X Rupestris 2, Riparia gloire, and Riparia grand glabre. 

 These are all varieties which have given excellent results for years in 

 Europe, and have all been tested successfully in California. Among them 

 are varieties suitable for nearly all the vineyard soils of California, with 

 perhaps the exception of some of the heavier clays. 



" The methods of pruning and training mother vines of resistant varieties 

 will differ in several important respects from the methods suitable for varie- 

 ties grown for their fruit. In the latter case we should be careful to leave 

 as many fruitful buds as the vine can utilize; in the former the fruit is of 

 no value, and if any is produced it will be at the expense of the wood. Our 

 object is to produce as much wood as possible. 



" In accordance with this idea tlie mother vines are often pruned in such 

 a w^ay as to force out each year a growth of watersprouts from the old 

 wood. All the canes on the vine are cut ofi' as close to the stump as 

 possible. 



