516 



AUTl'MN IJKAITING AND SPRING BUDDING. 



described, are, we believe, mosi useful and 

 excellent variations of the modes of propa- 

 gating trees and shrubs, by no means gene- 

 rally known or practiced in America. N. 

 LoNGWORTH, Esq., of Cincinnati, has per- 

 formed .spring-budding with success, and 

 drew tlie attention of our readers to it, by a 

 brief note, in a previous number (p. 145.) 

 Besides the greater success for certain kinds 

 of trees, which attends the modes of grafting 

 and budding described by Mr. Nhlson, they 

 are most valuable to the amateur, or com- 

 mercial grower, who often receives grafts 

 a little out of season ; or who wishes, by 

 spring-budding, to produce half a dozen 

 trees from a scion, which, if used for graft- 

 ing, would only serve for one or at most 

 two trees. — Ed.] 



Grafting and budding are so well known 

 that hardly any thing new can be said 

 about them. Nevertheless I hope, in com- 

 municating something of the experience of 

 many years, that those less acquainted with 

 these operations will find a few useful hints. 



I will omit the common spring grafting 

 on growing trees, and confine my remarks 

 to root-grafting, described by Mu. Phoenix, 

 on page 280 of The Horticulturist.- Not- 

 withstanding that root-grafting is, I suppose, 

 as old as propagating plants by pieces of 

 roots, it is not as commonly practiced, as it 

 ought to be. 



In the winter of 1835, after having visited 

 the most celebrated gardens on the conti- 

 nent, I returned to my native country, Den- 

 mark, 55° north latitude, and for the first 

 time tried root-grafting. I applied this 

 method on apples, pears, plums, cherries, 

 peaches and apricots, with good success; 

 Madeira nuts, filberts and roses would not 

 take to my satisfaction, and black English 

 mulberries would not grow at all ; they 

 were all grafted in February, and put into 



boxes. I thought it however difiicult to 

 keep them free from frost in the cellar, un- 

 less the latter was so warm as to cause the 

 grafts to shoot. I therefore let the grafted 

 roots freeze in the boxes, as soon as grafted, 

 and placed them in an ice-house, where 

 they remained in that temperature, I may 

 say frozen, till the latter part of April, in 

 very good condition. But there was another 

 and still greater, difficulty now in the way, 

 which was to get them planted sufficiently 

 early in that busy season, when every kind 

 of garden work must be performed ; and 

 even if this could be done, the grafts of 

 some trees often require protection against 

 the powerful sun, and suffer much from 

 drouth, before they could strike roots. 



Instructions for transplanting the difTerent 

 kinds of plants are given in the works on 

 gardening ; but much easier and plainer is 

 it to follow the hints, which Nature herself 

 teaches, and to transplant every kind in its 

 season of rest, which is very different, indeed, 

 according to the different kinds, in spring, 

 summer and fall, but invariably when the 

 plant has ripened its fruit. At that period 

 all its juices are at rest, and the plant, be- 

 ing in a sleeping state, may easily be treat- 

 ed, as the gardener wishes. 



Accordingly, the ensuing fall, as soon as 

 the trees dropped their leaves, I began to 

 root-graft the same kinds as before, and 

 planted them directly out in nursery rows, 

 protecting them with dry leaves, covered 

 with pine twigs, in order that the wind 

 should not blow them away. As I wished 

 to keep the ground open for further plant- 

 ing, I also covered some beds in the same 

 manner. 



In this way I continued root-grafting and 

 planting, till towards christmas, when the 

 winter set in. Though it was rather a se- 

 vere winter, and there was but very little 



