88 The Garden. 



*' To this principle there is an exception, arising from the pe- 

 culiar design which the graft is intended to fulfil. Where the 

 design is to increase fruit-bearing, the stock may be of firmer 

 texture than the cutting, as when a peach cutting is grafted on a 

 plum stock, which, having narrow vessels, a part of the descend- 

 ing pulp is stopped short, and serves to strengthen the branch. 

 If it be intended to increase the branches and leaves, on the 

 other hand, a plum cutting grafted on a peach stock might proba- 

 bly do so, by allowing the ascent of more sap. 



" Binding of the Graft. — When the joining has been made, 

 by cutting and properly fitting the bark of the slip to the back of 

 the stock, at least on one side thereof, it must be bound so as to 

 prevent this junction from being deranged. This is usually done 

 with a ball of three parts of clay, well worked, with one part of 

 fresh horse droppings, and a little finely chopped straw, the 

 whole about an inch thick, and two inches or more in length, be- 

 ing tied with a ribbon of bass." 



The principle upon which this is done, is to prevent the oxy- 

 gen of the atmosphere from getting to the fluid pulp at the 

 joining, where it would unite with the carbon, and form carbonic 

 acid gas, and thereby rob the pulp of its solidity. The exclu- 

 sion of light is necessary on the same account, for, as in the 

 case of the finger cut, the oxygen would unite with the carbon, 

 and would prevent the thickening of matter from the blood. On 

 the same account, moisture, by supplying oxygen, would be in- 

 jurious; and dryness might act both as exhausting the pulp, and 

 by causing the edges of the back to shrivel and gape, which 

 would facilitate the entrance of the air and its oxygen. 



Pruning. 



We have been the constant advocates for summer instead of 

 winter pruning — of pruning after the leaves have expanded, and 

 the limbs have nearly or quite completed their vernal growth, in 

 preference to pruning when trees are leafless and the growth 

 dormant. We have done so because we considered it most 

 rational in theory, and have found it more betieficial in practice. 

 As it is the general practice to prune fruit trees at this season, 

 we will capitulate the reasons which have influenced our prac- 

 tice. 



1. Winter pruning causes an increase of spray or weak limbs, 

 which it is the object of the cultivator to lessen, in order to ad- 

 mit the light, heat and air into the head of the tree, to perfect 

 and mature the fruit. On this point we quote Prof. Rennie: — 



" The head or branches," he observes, " will always be in 

 proportion to the roots, and the food with which they are fur- 

 nished. It will therefore be preposterously obvious to dream of 

 checking the luxuriance of a tree by cutting out its bi*anches in 



