3i6 Journal of Agriculture. [8 May, 1907. 



specially for scions. The vines should he iiruned well back and no 

 grapes or laterals allowed to grow, the ends of the shoots to he 

 nipped off so as to assist the perfect: maturing of the wood. Much in 

 fact as has been done in growing American stocks at the Rutherglen 

 College. 



As for grafting methods there is but little to be learned in the Gironde. 

 Grafting machines are not very extensively used, as labour is cheap and 

 the simple cleft graft is more popular than an\ other, largely on accoimt 

 of the union being more easily discernible, when imperfect, than with the 

 whip-tongue graft. With the latter the two tougues may not unite com- 

 pletely and the vine will suffer eventually through having scars, .so to 

 speak, at the point of union. One nurseryman told me he had discarded 

 machines as the cut was never clean as with a knife, and the strike in 

 consequence suffered. The machine must be very perfectly adjusted and 

 the knife kept absolutely sharp in order that a satisfactory result may be 

 obtained. In callusing the grafts, manv nurserymen use no ligatures 

 at all. The grafts are carried direct from the bench to the callusing 

 beds and there placed in position and kept until callused. Usually 

 they are not taken from the callusing beds until much later than has been 

 possible at the Rutherglen nurserx', water shoots being cut off carefully 

 and the grafted vine planted in the nurserw Here comes in the chief 

 difference between French and Victorian methods. Xo^ nurseryman will 

 attempt to strike vines unless in most suitable free sandy soil. They 

 insist upon the soil being sufficiently sandv to be worked in all weathers 

 and would no more dream of trying to strike vines in a stiff clay soil as 

 at the Rutherglen College than a Ballarat farmer would try to grow 

 pineapples instead of potatoes. Suitable nursery land is the very first 

 consideration and fetches high prices. It must be sufficiently free for 

 the vines to be planted when tliev are actualh* callused. The callusing 

 must not be hurried for fear of the land setting arid becoming unworkable. 

 The soil must never crack, but more especially must there never be any 

 hard lumps which may touch the graft and disturb it during disrooting and 

 hoeing. When I described the soil of the Rutherglen nursery I was at 

 once pitied for having had to live in such a wretched country where even 

 the nursery land would not even grow potatoes. It is my opinion, which 

 I ha^•e often expres.sed before, that if reconstitution is to be carried on 

 successfully in Victoria the Government nursery should be specially chosen 

 for the purpose. So long as unsuitable land is used so long will the 

 results be inadequate and unremunerative. One Victorian grower, as full 

 of enterprise as e\"er, tells me that ;he is starting a nursery on Murray 

 River flats where he has suitable soil and water handy. There is surely 

 no reason wdiy with the land at their disposal the Victorian Department of 

 Agriculture should not find a spot more suitable for growing grafts than 

 the land now used at the Rutherglen College within a get-at-able distance 

 of the present grafting and callusing plant.* 



I was jjarticularly interested in hearing the percentage of strike is 

 seldom above 40 per cent., and when above that it is put down to the rich- 

 ness and friability of the soil. This year as there was no rain for four 

 months and irrigation was scarcely considered necessary or provided for 

 the average strike will not exceed 30 per cent. From these figures it 

 will be seen that Victoria has not a great deal to learn from France in 

 the matter of grafting methods, except in the matter of the choice of soil, 



* A suitable block has now been seouied as a nursery at Wahjfunj ah. —Editor. 



