330 



NOTES ON GRAFTING. 



own inferences. I shall content myself by 

 merely relating the course pursued with my 

 trees in the autumn of 1847 ; and if others 

 choose to follow my plan, perhaps like ex- 

 perience may be theirs. Before I proceed, 

 however, I wish to remark, that I do not 

 intend to assert that the treatment pursued 

 by me kept disease from my trees. Seve- 

 ral seasons, of like experience with my 

 remedy, would be necessary to induce me 

 to give a positive opinion as to any course 

 being specific for such destructive maladies. 

 I only wish to relate things as they have 

 occurred this year, so that others may be 

 induced to experiment as well as myself. 

 I have, during several years past, kept 

 constantly ready for use a compost of ashes, 

 lime, and iron scoria, from the smith's 

 forge, which I have invariably applied round 

 and about the roots of pear trees, when 

 planting them out, and also on the surface 

 around the larger trees every second year. 

 Last autumn, when taking up such trees as 

 had been killed during the season, I dis- 



covered that the iron used by me was en- 

 tirely unaffected by exposure to atmospheric 

 influences, or by the moisture in the earth. 

 This indicated to me that such iron was, of 

 course, useless. I therefore determined to 

 pursue a different plan ; and prociired from 

 a steam engine manufactory, turnings of 

 pure iron, which I mixed, as before, with 

 ashes and lime, and applied a given quan- 

 tity to every pear tree on my place. I 

 would have preferred crushed bones in lieu 

 of the lime, but could not procure them in 

 Albany. 



I again repeat, that I do not wish to be 

 understood as giving it as my opinion that 

 the iron prevented disease showing itself 

 among my trees. Others are as capable of 

 judging, with the facts before them, as I 

 am. I will only add that, during the past 

 season, diseases have been very virulent 

 among the pear trees in the vicinity of this 

 city ; many growers having lost nearly all 

 their collection. Yours very truly, 



Herman Wendell. 



RANDOM NOTES ON GRAFTING, ETC. 



BY A. FAHNESTOCK, LANCASTER, OHIO. 



Having some apple grafts, of the Raide's 

 Jannet, left over last spring from my root 

 grafting, it occurred to me to ascertain how 

 long they could be kept available for suc- 

 cessful working. Accordingly I put them 

 into damp sawdust, permitting the sawdust 

 to dry as the season advanced, so that 

 finally they were protected from the air 

 only, — the sawdust being then perfectly 

 dry. With these grafts I worked ten stocks 

 in the first week of May; they all took, 

 and made a fine growth. In the first week 

 of June, and, also, first week of July, I 

 worked a similar number ; not one failed. 



The last of July, I worked the balance, - 

 (ten.) Some were tongue or cleft grafted, 

 some spliced, and some, I might say, "bud- 

 grafted ;" that is, I cut off the stock, made 

 an incision downwards in the bark, as if 

 budding, opened the bark and inserted the " 

 graft, — it being previously prepared, as if 

 for splice grafting. These last have done 

 remarkably well ; having all made from 

 one foot to one and a half foot growth. In 

 the last instance, the grafts were perfectly 

 dry in appearance, and quite shrivelled. 

 I forwarded this fall to my friends, W. R. 

 Smith, of Macedon, N. Y., and James R. 



