THE PROPAGATION OF FRUIT TREES. 



It is now generally undei'stood that tlie several varieties of 

 our different fruit trees can not be propagated by planting the 

 seeds of any particular sort, but that the only method of increas- 

 ing the number of trees of any variety of fruit, is by propagating 

 portions of that tree which -we wish to multiply. Sometimes a 

 small portion of a young branch, cut off from the tree, can be 

 planted in the ground and made to take root, and grow, and 

 increase in size, until it becomes as large as the parent tree. But 

 this is not generally the case with apple, pear, plum, cherry or peach 

 trees, and in the few instances of the varieties that will thus root 

 from cuttings most freely, they grow slowly, and rarely make a 

 etrong, healthy and vigorous tree. To meet this difficulty, recourse 

 is had to the operations known as grafting and budding. By this 

 means one or more wood-producing buds are taken from the tree 

 which we wish to multiply, and are so connected with a living 

 root, that the bud is supplied by this root with the sap which 

 no\mshes it, and enables it to expand, and grow, and eventually 

 form, according to the will of the cultivator, either a branch or 

 an entire tree. In grafting, we take a young branch, having 

 usually, three well developed wood buds, and insert this either 

 into the body or branch of another tree; but in budding, we cut 

 out only a single bud, and insert this under the bark of another 

 tree, that we wish to make bear fruit of the sort borne by the 

 tree from whence the bud was taken. 



Grafting. — There are several methods of grafting, but for all 

 practical purposes we may confine our attention to the two 

 methods known as cleft-grafting and whip-grafting. Cleft- 

 grafting is practised when the stock into which the grafts are to 

 be inserted is much larger, that is, of much greater diameter than 

 the scion. Whip-grafting, sometimes called splice-grafting, is 

 performed when the graft and stock are nearly of the same size. 



