12 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



GRAFTING. 



Grafting is a science long known in fruit-culture, and 

 various modes of grafting are practised in different countries. 

 The French, it is said, have no less than fifty, and excel all 

 others in the art. The most prominent modes in vogue with 

 them, however, are whip, root, splice, skin, and cleft graft- 

 ing : their other modes are principally experimental. The 

 object of grafting is similar to that of budding, — to multiply 

 varieties that cannot reproduce themselves from the seed ; 

 though it is often performed with other objects in view, such 

 as obtaining a new variety quicker than by any other mode. 

 A scion inserted in a bearing tree will hardly ever fail to pro- 

 duce the third year; bat this cannot be said with the same 

 operation on a seedling : it will show no sign of fruiting in 

 that time. Therefore we must see the importance of hav- 

 ing older trees, and of the strong-growing kinds, for stocks to 

 accomplish the object successful fy. The slow-growing kinds 

 are never apt to bring good results. 



Crossing two healthy varieties of the pear family cannot 

 but work very important influences on both scion and stock 

 in producing fine fruit, as we have seen the Bartlett grafted 

 on the Doyenne Boussock, the Dutchess on the Buffum, the 

 Beurre d'Anjou on the Onondaga, Clapp's Favorite on the 

 Flemish Beauty, produce very fine and extra large speci- 

 mens. The society has paid a premium two } T ears in succes- 

 sion on specimens of the Beurre Clairgeau pear grown from 

 grafts on a Flemish Beauty stock. The Flemish Beauty, 

 Beurre Diel, Doyenne Boussock, Doyenne White, Buffum, 

 and Vicar of Winkfield, make most excellent stocks for most 

 all other varieties. 



Grafting is performed by inserting a scion of one variety 

 on the branch of another, called the stock ; and trees of all 

 ages can be grafted successfully, if they be sound and 

 healthy, and the scions also. Scions are shoots of the pre- 

 vious year's growth, and should be cut in February, and tied 

 up. The butt ends should be cut square, then placed 

 standing in some part of the cellar-floor where it is a little 

 moist. Scions thus treated are kept dormant until wanted, 

 with no shrivelling of the bark, and will be in an excellent 

 condition to use. They should be taken from the upper 



