12 PROPAGATION OF THE GRAPE VINE: BY INARCHING. 



the bud remaining dormant until the following spring. The bud is- 

 taken from a Vine-shoot which is in a growing condition, or which 

 has just begun to ripen. The bud is cut from the shoot in the usual 

 manner, with a leaf, as in the case of the Rose, only the wood is not 

 extracted, but is inserted with the bud on to the stock, in the same 

 manner as in the bud-graft shown in fig. 5. The younger the stock 

 on which this method of budding is performed the better. It cannot 

 be advantageously practised on very old stems. It is a good plan for 

 rapidly testing the merits of a new sort, since it permits of a great 

 number of buds being inserted on a Vine already established. 



5. Inarching, or grafting, par approche, as the French very properly 

 term the operation, is a method of attaching two growing plants 

 together, and it is very frequently adopted in the case of Vines. It is 

 found to be a safe and easy process, and there are many ways of 

 doing it. A shoot of a permanent Vine may be inarched on to a Vine 

 in a pot, and a new plant of the permanent Vine be thus obtained ; or 

 a plant in a pot may be so placed as to admit of its top being inarched 

 on to a permanent plant, and this is more frequently the requirement. 

 Some cultivators perform the operation whilst the plants are at rest^ 

 but this is not a safe period \ others inarch about the time when the 

 first leaves are expanded, when the first rush of sap is over, and at 

 this time inarching can be performed with the greatest certainty 

 of success. The operation is subject to the same rules as grafting, 

 and will be explained under that head, the only difference being that 

 the scion is not separated from the parent stock until after the union 

 has taken place. 



There is another process of inarching, however, which is very much 

 in favour with many Vine-growers, viz., that of uniting the green or 

 growing shoots of the stock and scion. The union in this case is 

 formed very quickly and very effectively, and the inarched shoot, in 

 the course of a week or so, grows away quite freely, The difficulty 

 in this process is that the stock and scion must necessarily be of an 

 almost equal thickness, and so when it is wished to inarch a young 

 slender growth on to a large-stemmed old Vine, it can only be 

 accomplished by the medium of one of the side-shoots. Some growers 

 like this method so much, that instead of trusting to simple grafting, 

 they first " strike the eye," and grow the plant to a certain size, then 

 inarch it. It is eminently a safe and sure method. 



To inarch, then, is simply to bring two growing shoots or stems 

 together, and to unite or fasten them to each other, as in grafting. 

 As soon as the scion has fairly taken hold, sever it from its own root 

 partially at first, and finally and completely in about a week after,, 

 keeping the stock in subjection so as to give prominence to the scion. 



6. Grafting. The grafting of the Vine has generally been 

 considered a somewhat difficult operation, and it is actually so. In 

 the scion, as in the stock, part of the tissue or substance of the plant 



