354 Journal of Agriculture. [8 June, 1908. 



means of nursery raised bench grafts were doing well, any one accustomed 

 Lo vineyard work could see that the vineyard grafts were on the whole 

 more satisfactory and quite as regular ; for in these warm southern districts, 

 the graft succeeds far more regularly than in the colder climate of even 

 Southern France where want of regularity in the vineyard is the chief 

 argument against vineyard grafting. I carefully examined a good many 

 of the vines and coulu find no fault with the unions obtained by means 

 of vineyard grafting. In colder climates, this method is said to give 

 many faulty unions but in the warm south the vigorous growth which 

 shortly follows the knitting of stock and scion seems to result in a com- 

 plete and almost always faul'iless union. 



Jerez vineyard proprietors and managers hold that a vineyard grafted 

 vine comes to full bearing a year or two earlier than a bench grafted 

 nursery raised one even though the latter were planted at the same time 

 as the ungrafted American rootling which was to be subsequently grafted. 

 They point out that the roots formed in the nursery are of little use and 

 die off, their place being filled by entirely new roots thrown out from 

 the base of what was the original cutting subsequent lo its replantation. 

 One partisan of vineyard grafting pertinently remarked that it was more 

 logical to allow the young vine to make its roots the first year and its 

 union the second as it was then in a better position to m.ake a perfect 

 union. If both had to be made simultaneously the work would be much 

 less perfectly done as the sap necessary for the elaboration, both of roots 

 and union, would have the obstacle of the restriction presented by the 

 graft, whereas if the roots were already thoroughly established, the strong 

 flow of sap would enable this to adapt itself rapidly to any calls that 

 might be made on it. 



The fine vineyards of Gonzalez Byass & Co., such as Tula, JNIatamoros, 

 &c., have all been reconstituted in this way and so far as regularity and 

 vigour leave nothing: to be desired. 



Another argument in favor of the vineyard graft is the fact that in 

 the dry climate of Jerez a very long rooted plant appears to be necessary 

 so that, when first planted, its roots mav be sufficiently deep to survive 

 drought. It does not appear to be practicable to successfully rear bench 

 grafts of the length which is considered necessary for " barbados " as 

 the rooted ungrafted Americans are termed. 



I inquired into the matter very completely in Spain as the popularity 

 ot the vineyard graft in Portugal came rather as a sui prise (o me. I 

 consider that there must be good reasons for the contentions of these 

 vineyard proprietors who show so strongly a preference for vineyard 

 grafting bo'h in Southern Spain and Portugal. It is true that in Northern 

 Spain where climatic conditions are more similar to those prevailmg in 

 France, bench grafting is largely displacing vineyard grafting, especially 

 now that callusing methods have been considerably improved, thus per- 

 mitting a higher percentage of successful unions to be obtained. In 

 Northern Spain the French moss callusing system, invented bv M. F. 

 Ixichter of ^lontpellier, mav be said to have revolutionized the production 

 of nursery raised bench grafts, but in our warm climate, so similar to 

 that of Southern Spain, it is highly probable that vineyard grafting, if 

 properly executed, will prove of great use. 



Grafting Methods. 

 Bench grafting is so little practised in Jerez that we need not consider 

 the methods used. In the vineyard the vines are grafted by two quite 



