206 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Plants that have this tendency must be multiplied in some other way, and 

 the one other way is by means of buds — by grafting or budding. Grafting 

 as a means of propagation can be applied to most trees, and its chief use is 

 in the perpetuation of valuable varieties of fruit, peculiar beauties in orna- 

 mental shrubs, and the many wonderful productions of the gardener in the 

 way of the double or otherwise abnormally developed flower. 



The art is regarded by many as being enveloped in mystery, as being hard 

 to learn, and difficult to execute. This is not the case as far as the practice 

 of the art as adapted to the ordinary necessities of the farmer or fruit 

 grower is concerned. True, a certain degree of mechanical skill is required 

 to properly cut a cion and so adjust it to the stock as to insure success; but 

 this requisite skill can be acquired by anyone who has the desire to learn 

 and is willing to take the knife in his own hand and devote a little time to 

 practice. There are certain principles which must be understood, and some 

 knowledge of the relationship of plants to each other is necessary to success- 

 ful practice. The principles are easily learned, and intelligent observation 

 will supply the rest of all that is requisite for the ordinary use of the art. 



The limits within which plants can be grafted is still a problem, and one 

 well worthy of experiment and study. The laws of the affinity of species 

 are not well known, and the anomalous results of many grafting experi- 

 ments only serve to show how wide and interesting this field for research is. 



It can be stated as a law that no plants can be made to unite as a stock and 

 cion, that do not belong to the same natural order. Plants of different 

 genera of the same order will in some cases unite, and as we come to the 

 nearer relationship of plants of different species of the same genus we find 

 greater affinities, and greater willingness to take the one with the other. 

 There must be similarity in the structure of tissues, and in the workings of 

 the vital organs of the plants. In many cases when one plant will not suc- 

 ceed upon another the cause can be directly traced to some physiological dif- 

 ference, as in the case of the platanus-leaved maple, which, it is said, will 

 not receive cions of maples of other species ; here there is an observable dif- 

 ference in the sap. In many other cases no cause of failure can be assigned. 

 Why certain varieties of pears do better on quince stocks than on seedlings, 

 and other varieties do better on seedlings than on the quince, is not easily 

 accounted for. The pear will take on the apple, but does not thrive, and 

 the union is short-lived. De Candolle mentions the grafting of the lilac on 

 the ash and the fringe tree on the lilac, all plants of the same order, but of 

 different genera. We find the necessary affinity existing between the apple 

 and the crab, and the peach and the plum, hence they unite readily; but 

 it does not exist between the apple and the plum, nor the rose and the thorn, 

 and they can not be made to take. 



The ancient writers, Varro, Virgil, Columella and Pliny, while giving 

 minute and generally correct rules for all the mechanical operations of 

 grafting would have no limitation. 



Columella says : " Every kind of cion may be ingrafted into every kind of 

 tree if it is not unlike in its bark to that into which it is ingrafted, but if it 

 brings forth fruit also at the same time it may be ingrafted very safely, 

 without any scruple." After describing three kinds of grafting, which he 

 says " the ancients have taught us " (viz., cleft grafting, crown grafting and 

 budding), he describes a fourth method (inarching), which he claims to 

 have invented, and by which " everybody may graft any kind of cion they 



