136 Spring Work — Grafting. [March, 



the first of March, no difference how cold, and if frozen afterward it will 

 not injure the grafts. We speak from experience, and the most com- 

 plete success has been had in grafting cherries in February, in freezing 

 weather, when the cold afterward was so intense that the mercury fell 

 below zero. The point to be observed here is, to have your grafts taken 

 and inserted while the grafts and tree are yet in a quiescent state. The 

 plum, and all stone-fruits, should be grafted early, on the same principle. 



Apples and pears may be grafted from March until June, with safety 

 arid success. It is necessary to take the grafts while the sap is quies- 

 cent. The reason why the grafting of apples and pears, and seed-fruit 

 generally, is more successfully done after the sap has started, is this : — 

 The cortica is thick, and full of nutrition ; the bud is closely attached 

 thereto, and is thus sustained for days without being dried, and the cur- 

 rent of sap, in the meantime, finds its way, before the desiccation before- 

 mentioned, takes place. 



Do not destroy your old apple, cherry, or pear trees, if they are 

 healthy. Ee-invigorate them by grafting ; not by cutting them too close 

 to the main-trunk, where the branch is too large to heal, and by which 

 the vital forces of the tree are impaired. But go out upon the branches 

 until you reach a suitable size — say from an inch and a half to half an 

 inch, according to size of tree, etc ; here continue to cut and graft until 

 the entire top is dislodged. I know there is a different theory in prac- 

 tice, and one having the sanction of high authority; but it will not be 

 found the most judicious, or successful in practice. 



If you graft but a part of the tree, under pretext of preserving tlie 

 vital forces, you dwarf your grafts by directing the current into the 

 unlopped branches — and having grafts of different ages on the same 

 tree, you never can form so symmetrical a top. By going out sufficiently 

 far upon the branches, you are encouraging an equal flow of sap to all 

 parts, which being checked for a time, will push out shoots all along the 

 amputated limbs ; the graft soon starts ; then rub off, for a few times, 

 these shoots, until the graft has fairly begun to move ; then you may 

 leave them, if you please, until the next year, when you must prune 

 them closely, and cut-in your graft well, leaving it from two to three 

 feet, according to strength. A skillful grafter will thus change the top 

 of a large tree in two or three hours, inserting some thirty or forty grafts 

 that in two years will form a top as beautiful and symmetrical as the 

 original, and your tree is rejuvenated. One of the oldest apple trees in 

 this country was dealt with by us in this way, some twelve years since, 

 and the tree seems more vigorous now than twenty years ago. It is now 

 over forty-five years old, and produces annually some five or six barrels 



