750 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



smooth, and well covered. If kept in a well-corked bottle, it may be preserved any length of 

 time, and be conveniently at hand when needed. 



Propagation. The most common means for propagating fruit trees is grafting and 

 budding, although there are several different methods employed for this purpose. Strictly 

 speaking, there are but two methods of propagating trees and plants, and these are by plant 

 ing seeds, which is the natural process, and by the means of buds, which is for the most part 

 an artificial process. The latter is the better method, since the seed of fruit will rarely pro 

 duce fruit of the same kind, while a long time is also required for the tree to reach maturity; 

 while by grafting a bud or scion into the branch of another tree, the fruit that may be pro 

 duced will be very similar to that of the original source. Less time is also required for the 

 grafted bud or scion to reach a bearing age, than for the seed to produce a natural tree. 

 Grafting coifsists in inserting a scion of one variety or species on a branch or stem of another, 

 the latter being called the stock. The latter may be of all ages from a seedling of a year s 

 growth to a full-grown, aged tree, but in order to insure success the stock should be sound 

 and healthy. 



The propagation of fruit by grafting is of very ancient origin, having been well known 

 and practiced by the Greeks and Romans, and although many new methods have been 

 devised since that period, many of those described by the Greek and Roman writers are fully 

 as ingenious as those employed at the present time. It is said that the French, who are noted 

 for their skill in grafting, are familiar with from fifty to seventy-five different methods of 

 propagating fruit and plants by this means. The principal methods employed for propagating 

 specific varieties of the larger fruits are by grafting and budding; and for small fruits and 

 vines are by cuttings, layers, and runners, the use of buds being required in all of these 

 methods. 



The tools used in grafting are a light, sharp, small-toothed saw, to cut the oranches, a 

 sharp chisel to smooth the surface, a broad, stout-bladed knife to split the stock, a light 

 mallet or hammer to drive the blade in making a cleft in the wood, a pot of grafting wax, 

 and a ball of strips of narrow cloth to bind around the stock after the scions or buds are 

 inserted. 



Benefits Derived from Grafting and Budding. The benefits derived from 

 grafting and budding maybe briefly summed up as follows: By this means the valuable kinds 

 of fruits that are not easily raised from seeds or cuttings, may be rapidly propagated; hence, 

 new varieties, when obtained, maybe quickly introduced to all sections suited to their growth. 

 By this means, also, a comparatively worthless tree may be made to produce the choicest 

 variety of fruits in from two to four years. By grafting several varieties of fruit on the 

 same tree, a succession of from early to late fruits may be obtained in a small garden, and 

 from few trees. Certain tender and delicate varieties may be made more hardy by grafting 

 them on to robust stock, and also to grow in a climate not naturally adapted to them. Graft 

 ing also hastens the bearing of seedling varieties of fruit which would be a long time in 

 arriving to a full-grown, bearing tree; hence, a seedling pear or apple that might require 

 from twelve to eighteen years to arrive at the bearing period, may by grafting it on to the 

 extremity of the branch of a mature tree, produce fruit in from three to four years. Dwarf 

 fruit trees may be obtained, when desired, by grafting certain kinds of fruit on suitable trees 

 of slow growth. 



Selecting Scions. Repeated experiments have demonstrated the fact that in nearly 

 all kinds of grafting by scions the highest success is attained when the tree upon which the 

 scion is grafted is a little more advanced than the scion itself; therefore, in order to have the 

 sap of the tree to be grafted in a more active state than the scion, the latter is generally cut 



