AUTUMN GRAFTING AND SPRING BUDDING. 



517 



mon Pseony tubers in the garden at this 

 place, and they now appear very health}'. 

 I have tried deft as well as tvhip-grafting, 

 on roots, with equal success. 



In all fall grafting, I tie the grafts very 

 fast, leaving a bud on the scion only a quar- 

 ter of an inch from its lower end, and on 

 planting out, I place this bud just below the 

 surface. I leave two buds more on the 

 scion, but place the most confidence on the 

 lower bud. I cover the whole wound with 

 melted grafting wax, as also the top of the 

 scion, to keep air and moisture from them. 

 I like spring grafting on growing trees ; 

 but as it is desirable to extend the season 

 for propagating as much as possible, I shall 

 greatly prefer, according to my own expe- 

 rience, and for many other reasons, to per- 

 form my root-grafting in the autumn. 



Budding is so well decribed in your work 

 on the "Fruits and Fruit Trees of America," 

 that nothing valuable could be added to that 

 description. Very little, however, is said 

 of spring budding, and I hope, therefore, it 

 may not be amiss, if, in a few words, I give 

 my experience on this method of budding ; 

 and why budding should not do as well in 

 May as in August. 



Many years ago I met with an account of 

 budding roses in spring, in a German gar- 

 dening journal (WeissenseeBlumenzeitung, 

 if my memory serves me, for 1832) and tried 

 it directly. According to the directions I 

 commenced in March, before the bark would 

 peel, by cutting out buds with a small piece 

 of wood, making a similar cut on the stock, 

 inserting the buds so that the inner bark of 

 bud and stock should exactl_v correspond, 

 and tying them firmly together. This was 

 more properly hud-grafdng than real bud- 

 ding; but I continued my experiments till 

 the middle of May, and as soon as the bark 



the roots as soon as Rafted, in a hot-bed, tiiade with only half | ,^^,^^^ , j inserted mv buds in the COm- 



as much stable manure, and consequently bottom heat, as ' - ^"i" 



usual— Ed. I mon way. 



snow, I found my grafts in spring in excel- 

 lent condition. Even roses, filberts and Ma- 

 deira nuts had taken readily, but the black 

 English mulberries were lost, and it seems 

 that this kind of fruit would not endure 

 root-grafting, though I sometivies succeeded 

 in grafting them on growing stocks of white 

 mulberries in spring.* 



As several ornamental shrubs begin to 

 grow 30 early in spring, as to render it very 

 difficult to root-graft or transplant them at 

 that season, without injuring them, I ap- 

 plied the same method to Cydonia japonica, 

 (the Japan Quince,) Daphne indica, and 

 others, with very good success, grafting the 

 first on hawthorn and quince roots, the latter 

 on the common Mezereum. 



The ensuing fall, 1836, I grafted filberts 

 and Cosford nuts, several roses, including 

 Hosa cristaia, Duchesse d^ Angoulhne, Queen 

 of De7i7nark, and others, on stems two and 

 three feet high, covering them by tieing 

 straw around them. They endured the win- 

 ter very well, and some of the roses flowered 

 the first summer. In October following, I 

 procured two plants of the tree Pceonias, ar- 

 borea and papaveracea. Both having but 

 very poor roots, I was obliged to cut off the 

 tops, and being desirous to save them, I 

 graffed those scions on some bulbs of the 

 common Red Pasony {P. officinalis,) planted 

 them in a proper soil, and, at the approach 

 of winter covered them with about three 

 inches of peat. In April I removed the 

 peat, and found the plants all in excellent 

 condition. On the 26th of October last, I 

 grafted six scions of Paonia arborea on com- 



* That fine fruit, the large black English mulberry, is al- 

 ways a scarce plant, even in England, from the difficulty of 

 propagating it. We have, however, been quite successful by 

 grafting it in the spring, upon pieces of the roots of our com- 

 mon Ued MvVjerry of the woods, (Morus nigra,) and planting 



