CHAPTER XX 



GRAFTING AND ITS EFFECTS ON TREES 



IN buying a number of Willows some years ago, 

 I was happy enough to find one of unusual grace a 

 weeping form of the Yellow Willow (Salix vitellind). 

 This Willow is graceful in its habit, but the weeping 

 variety I liked for its exquisite beauty, fine colour 

 throughout the year, and the usefulness of its abundant 

 shoots, which tie like a good twine. I was fortunate in 

 getting several plants on their natural roots, every one 

 of which throve, and in every stage looked well. Then, 

 seeking more, a number were sent me grafted on the 

 Common Ozier, and in the case of these a very different 

 set of circumstances arose. In the first place, you do 

 not get a healthy tree, because the Ozier is not nearly 

 so stately or fine as the Yellow Willow and does not 

 form a good stock. There is a hard and ugly angle 

 between the stiff stem of the stock and the abundant 

 branches of the Yellow Willow. Death begins very 

 soon, and comes in every case, if the shoots are not 

 removed. The appearance of the grafted plants as com- 

 pared with the other is simply piteous, and the plants 

 are not only worthless, but a nuisance, because after 

 a few years the stocks (of which we have already thou- 

 sands in the woods everywhere) will become weedy 

 trees out of place. It will at once be seen from this 

 how much is lost by grafting trees in the case of 



