EDITOE'S TiVBLE. 



in winter, when he has little to do, he grafts them ; it is just a day's work to do that. In 

 spring he plants them out, and then all the labor is over, except keeping the ground clean, 

 and removing suckers occasionally for the first season. But suppose he buds, or " stock- 

 grafts" them; the stocks have to be taken up, then pruned, planted out, and kept clear 

 all summer. If the season be very favorable, and the stocks at least two years old, they 

 may work the same season they are set out ; but the chances are very frequently against 

 them. Then they must be budded, and budding a thousand is quite equal to grafting ; we 

 Avould rather do the latter, for our own part; besides, the stocks must be looked over and 

 dressed before budding. Then, again, budding is much less certain than grafting ; very 

 few are fortunate enough not to be under the necessity of budding a large number the 

 second time, and, withal, to have failures. Then, again, the ties must be taken off; the 

 stocks headed down ; and, during the first season's growth of the young bud, three or four 

 crops of shoots have to be removed from the stocks below the bud. When the bud has 

 completed its first season's growth, the grafts have grown two years, and the labor required 

 from that time until they are ready for market, will be just the same. 



Now, is it not perfectly plain to every man that the buds, up to the end of the first year's 

 growth, have required, at least, four times the amount of manual labor, and consequently 

 expense. "VYe are not guessing at these things, but arguing upon the strength of actual 

 practice during many years, and upon a pretty extensive scale, where all the cost has been 

 carefully counted and compared. But this question of cost is merely incidental, and should 

 have no weight in determining the merits or demerits of either mode of propagation, for a 

 vicious system should not be countenanced on the ground of its economy. A poor tree 

 should never be purchased at any price ; our efforts always have been, and shall continue 

 to be, exerted in favor of elevating, rather than lowering, the standard of excellence in 

 trees. The superior taste and intelligence of the present day demands and warrants better 

 systems of culture on the part of tree growers, than have heretofore been generally put 

 in practice. 



Mr. IIovET very generously gives the following " particular case" to prop up his tottering 

 arguments : 



"We will mention one particular case. We had some Melon Apple trees of Messrs. Ellwanger 

 & Barry, in the spring of 1849 or '50. When we received them, we cut off a few scions. The 

 trees were set out carefully, in a good situation, and the scions were grafted into stocks, set iu 

 the nursery rows one year. The latter are now more than twice as large as the former, with the 

 promise of beiug ten times as large in two years more." 



ISTow the candid reader will at once say that a single case of this kind amounts to nothing. 

 Would it afford any argument against budding, if we should say that in our grounds there are 

 several stunted, withering si)ecimens, from Messrs. IIovey & Co., that in seven years have 

 not grown as much as some trees of our own working have done in two ? We would be 

 ashamed to use such an accident as an argument. 



The growth of root-grafted trees in this part of the country, is such as to challenge the 

 growth of budded trees in any part of the world. If that be any argument in favor of 

 root-grafting, we claim the benefit of it. But this is not the real point of the discussion. 

 Mr. lIovEY says, coolly, that his stock-grafted trees of three years growth, Ave suppose, are 

 twice as large as the root-grafted trees from Ellwangek & Baery of five years, and "in 

 two years more they will be ten times as large" — that is, supposing the five years old root- 

 grafts to be six feet high, and two inches in diameter of trunk, his stock-grafts of three 

 years must be twelve feet high, and four inches in diameter ; and in two years more. 



