202 Grafting large Trees. 



GRAFTING LARGE TREES. 



Every pomologist who has ever undertaken to make a collection of 

 fruit has found among the multitudinous varieties gathered together a 

 great number which have proved of inferior quality ; and even the cul- 

 tivator who, profiting by the experience of those who have preceded 

 him, plants only a selection of the best varieties, finds, to his mortifica- 

 tion and regret, that some of his trees are not the kinds which he ordered, 

 or they prove not to be adapted to his soil, or some of those most pop- 

 ular when he planted them have, in the few years that have elapsed 

 between that time and their coming into bearing, shown defects which 

 cause them to be generally condemned. The time and labor spent in 

 rearing such trees are not wholly lost, for, with skill and judgment, they 

 may, by grafting into the limbs, in a very fev\r years be made to produce 

 the best varieties. Too often, however, from want of skill in perform- 

 ing the operation, many grafts fail to grow, or from want of judgment 

 as to what limbs should be grafted, or where they should be cut, an 

 unsightly, ill-balanced tree is pi'oduced, when a little care would have 

 given a tree which in a few years would be as beautiful as any in the 

 orchard. 



There are a few points connected w^ith this subject, not generally 

 noticed in treatises on fruit culture, to which it may be worth while to 

 call attention. Suppose we have a handsome pyramidal tree, of per- 

 haps twenty feet in height, which we have reluctantly concluded must 

 be regrafted. The first point to be considered is what branches to graft 

 and where to graft them, so that when the work is completed, and the 

 grafts are grown, the tree shall still present the same beautiful pyramidal 

 form. Stand off" at a little distance, and obsei"ve what limbs, if any, are 

 superfluous, and would be cut out if you were pruning. Do not touch 

 these. The whole top of a large tree should never be grafted at once, 

 but two or even three years should be taken for the operation ; and it is 

 very plain that it will be a saving of time to graft the limbs which you 

 mean to retain, leaving the others to be cut out the second year, rather 

 than to adopt the contrary course. Then, as to the points where the 



