﻿OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 109 



Cleft grafting is the more ordinary mode employed, and it is usu- 

 ally done by digging away the earth, and inserting the graft very early 

 in the Spring, two or three inches, or at the first smooth place below 

 the surface. A horizontal cut of the stock is generally made, but a 

 sloping one is, perhaps, preferable, from the fact that it enables all 

 the gummy matter and excessive moisture which oozes from the cut, 

 to run down, and not accumulate to the injury of the cion. Fuller 

 recommends grafting in the Fall, and while this method is not deemed 

 so advisable in Missouri, where there is such continued alternation of 

 freezing and thawing, which is apt to lift the cion and separate it from 

 the stock ; yet I give his method in his own words, as recently pub- 

 lished in the New York Tribune: 



Select cions of the present year's g-rowth, and from canes a quarter to three-eighths 

 of an inch in diameter, and cut into lengths of three inches, with a bud near the upper 

 end. 'J'he lower end should be made into a long, slender wedge. Remove the earth 

 about the stock four to six inches, if the main branching roots will permit of this depth. 

 Then cut off the vine a few inches below the surfiice and square across ; then split it 

 with a chisel or knife, making as smooth a cleft as possible for the reception of the 

 wedge-shaped cion. If the stock is an inch or more in diameter, two cions may be 

 needed, one on each side of the cleft. 



The outer edge of the wood of the cion should be placed even with the outer edge 

 ■of the wood of the stock, no attention being paid to the uniting of the two, because 

 one will be very thick and the other thin. A nice lit of the two is essential, and in 

 ■crooked-grained, gnarly stocks, a smooth, even cleft can only be made by cutting out 

 the wood with a sharp instrument. But it does not matter how it is done if it is well 

 done. After fitting the cions to stock, wind a strong cord about the two, ui order to 

 hold the former firm in place ; then pack grafting clay or common soil about the stock, 

 entirely covering the wound made and the lower half of the cion, but leaving the bud 

 uncovered. No grafting wax should be employed in grafting grape vines. After the 

 cions have been inserted as directed, invert a flower-pot or small box over the cion ; 

 upon this place a quantity of leaves, straw or hay; then cover all with earth, rounding 

 it up in order to keep the water from settling around the grafted stock as well as to 

 prevent too severe freezing. 



Early in Spring remove the covering, and if the operation has been properly per- 

 formed, the cion will be firmly united, and will push into growth as the season, 

 .sidvances. I have had Delaw^are, lona and similar varieties make a growth of from 

 forty to sixty feet of vine from a single bud in one season, set in strong stocks in the 

 manner described. Grafting in the Spring may be performed in the same manner, 

 omitting the covering, but it should be done very early or after the leaves have started 

 and growth begun. The cions, however, should be cut early and kept dormant in some 

 «ool place until wanted for xise. 



But valuable above all other experience for our own people, will 

 be that of Mr. George Husmann, and as he has said little on the sub- 

 ject in his well known work, " Grapes and Wine," I take pleasure in 

 giving that experience, as he has kindly communicated it to me : 



Dear Sir : As you wished to have my views of grafting the vine, especially with 

 the object of grafting some of our varieties most subject to the ravages of the Phyl- 

 loxera upon roots of varieties which resist it, I will cheerfully add ray mite to the 

 researches which have alreadj^ thrown so much light upon the history and the failure 

 of so many of our otherwise most valuable varieties. My first attempt at grafting the 

 vine were made in the Spring of 1852, nearly twenty-three years since, and were made 

 by grafting the then rare varieties of Norton's Virginia and'Herbemont upon five years 

 old Isabella roots. I found in the first edition of A. J, Downing's "Fruits and Fruit 

 Trees of America," a few remarks on the practicability of grafting the grape below the 

 aground, which led me, then a novice in horticulture, to try it, and with eminent sue- 



