22 AMERICA^ GRAPE GBOWI^G 



CHAPTER V. 



GKAFTING THE VINE. 



The advantages of grafting are : 1. The facility by 

 which new and rare varieties may be rapidly increased by 

 grafting on strong, healthy old vines ; thus treated they 

 often grow from 10 to 20 feet the first season, producing 

 an abundance of wood to propagate from. A striking 

 illustration of this may be seen in the vineyards of Messrs. 

 Poeschel & Scherer, at Hermann, Mo., who commenced 

 five years ago with five eyes of the Elvira, and now have 

 2,500 bearing vines of that variety, all grafted on strong 

 Concord stocks. 2. The short time in which fruit can 

 be obtained of new and untried varieties, as the grafts 

 will generally bear the. second season. 3. The facility by 

 which vines of varieties, the fruit of which may be worth- 

 less, can be changed into valuable bearing vines. 4. The 

 advantage it offers to us in avoiding that invidious enemy, 

 the Phylloxera, as we can graft varieties, the roots of 

 which are subject to its ravages on those kinds which are 

 Phylloxera proof, and can facilitate the growth of natur- 

 ally weak varieties, and make them more vigorous, by 

 grafting on strong growing stocks. 5. Varieties which 

 will not grow readily from cuttings can generally be 

 grafted easily ; hence this method is especially valuable 

 to increase the varieties of cestivalis. 



The vine, however, does not graft with the same ease 

 as the apple and pear, and it is, therefore, a more uncer- 

 tain operation. Moreover, to insure success, it should be 

 grafted below the ground, which makes it a disagreeable 

 operation, and one quite difficult to perform, hence it 

 will hardly become a general practice. But for the pur- 

 poses above mentioned, the operation is sufficiently im- 

 portant to make it desirable that every vineyardist should 

 be able to perform it. 



