ORCHARDS. 129 



freely and rapidly, and assumes almost at once the appearance 

 of a healthy and vigorous tree. 



We conic next to the treatment of what arc called " suckers," 

 which, in the common mode of cleft grafting in the small limbs, 

 make their appearance freely and sometimes in great profusion 

 along the sides of the grafted limb. One plan is, in theory, to 

 remove every one as soon as it shows a leaf: in practice to cut 

 them all out two or three or more times during the season. 

 Another mode is to carefully preserve every leaf until the close 

 of the growing season, and then, at the time of winter pruning, to 

 cut them all out clean at once. The objection to the first mode 

 is this. The small amount of foliage which the scion possesses 

 in the early part of the season is often insufficient, especially 

 in limbs of some size, to induce that circulation of the sap 

 necessary to maintain and promote growth, and the scion, after 

 making perhaps a good start, languishes and shows only feeble 

 vitality, and makes but an indifferent union with the stock. 

 The objection to the other plan is, that suckers frequently out- 

 strip in vigor the scions themselves, and although under such 

 circumstances the scions may make a good union, yet this 

 growth is less than it would be under different management. 



The best method that we have found, and one which we 

 invariably adopt after grafting the pear, is this : to let every 

 sucker grow for a length of time depending upon the size of 

 limb, and the vigor of the scion. As soon as the scion has made 

 a good start, or if it hesitates while the suckers start strong, 

 the ends df the latter are to be pinched out so as to stop their 

 elongation, and throw more vigor into the former. Once pinch- 

 ing is ordinarily enough, but sometimes it is advisable to attend 

 to it again, or even more than once, if the scion does not make 

 wood satisfactorily. At the winter pruning, all the suckers are 

 to be cut out clean. If it is desirable to get all the growth 

 possible, as in the case of some slow-growing varieties, or rare 

 roots that we wish to force, the suckers may be cut out as soon 

 as the graft shows an amount of foliage sufficient to continue a 

 vigorous growth, independent of their assistance. In grafting 

 old apple trees on the large scale, we should not follow this 

 rule quite as strictly as in the pear, but would content ourselves 

 with going around once in the middle of the season, and pinch- 

 ing out the ends of vigorous suckers, perhaps cutting out some 

 17 



