196 GRAPES. 



by French gardeners, has lately appeared : Take a healthy 

 slip from an apple-tree, or the tree you wish to increase, and 

 insert it into a potato and plant it, leaving about two inches 

 of the slip visible. The slip is said to take root, arid grow 

 vigorously into a fruit-bearing tree. 



The season for grafting trees is in the spring, when the 

 sap is in motion ; the cherry and plum are first ready for the 

 process, the pear and apple being some weeks later. A mild, 

 showery atmosphere facilitates all the processes of grafting. 



GRAPES. Passing by foreign grapes, as too wide a sub- 

 ject for my limits, I shall confine myself to a few remarks 

 upon our native grape, which is found growing wild in most 

 of the States. The varieties of native grapes best known 

 are the Isabella and the Catawba ; both of these are hardy, 

 and grow rapidly in a bright, sunny, open exposure, though 

 they ripen with difficulty in Maine, New Hampshire, and 

 Vermont. The Isabella, being two or three weeks earlier 

 than the Catawba, is the variety chosen usually for garden 

 culture in the Eastern States. 



The Catawba, a native of Virginia, found in the region of 

 the river whose name it bears, is cultivated extensively at 

 the West, for wines ; it is not so sweet as the Isabella, but 

 has a more racy, vinous flavor. The Isabella is a native of 

 South Carolina. 



The garden culture of native grapes and their numerous 

 varieties is found by most persons so exceedingly easy, that 

 it is wonderful that every home whose premises command a 

 sunny, open exposure, does not keep a vine. 



Mr. Downing recommends, when the upright mode or 

 the spur mode of training is pursued, that the first sea- 

 son's growth of a newly planted vine be cut back to two buds 

 the ensuing fall or spring. " These two buds," he remarks, 

 " are allowed to form two upright shoots the next summer, 



