STOCK AND CION HANDLING 



211 



buds, do not completely sever the tops, which are bent 

 over. One method is to bend the tops of one row toward, 

 say the south end, and those of the next toward the north, 

 so the cultivator may go up one inter-row space and down 

 the next without serious interference. The tops remain 

 attached till the sprouts are say 15 inches tall. 



Another method, dependent somewhat upon placing 

 the nursery rows in pairs about three feet apart, with 

 wider inter-rows between the next pair, is to lop the tops 

 of the pairs into the narrow middles and leave them there 

 as a mulch until early fall. Some nurserymen favor this, 

 because they believe a better growth of sprouts is thus 



FIG. 175 THREE METHODS OF BENCH GRAFTING GRAPES 

 A to e, whipgraft; f to i, grafting with galvanized wire; j to n, Champin graft. 



secured. The wider inter-rows are cultivated. In every 

 case when tops are finally cut off, the stubs are cut off 

 smoothly, close to the buds, to favor healing without 

 scars. Staking the young trees is necessary, because the 

 unions are at first weak. 



271. Grape grafting is usually a necessity only (1) for 

 working over undesirable varieties or seedlings to desired 

 kinds and (2) for growing European varieties in regions 

 where the phylloxera (280) exists. The former, scarcely 

 a nursery practice, is made by cleft grafts below the soil 

 surface, without tying or waxing, but with earth mounded 



