332 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



CULTIVATION OF THE ORANGE. 



(Concluded.) 



Propagation. — It is said that plants of the 

 orange and lemon — the same may not hold 

 good of the other species — raised fi-om seed, 

 and never gi-afted, produce the best crops, 

 both in quantity and quality; but these 

 trees, when old, become so thorny that it is 

 troublesome to gather the fruit. If it be 

 sired to have any particular vai-iety of fiiiit, 

 grafting or budding is a means of doing 

 so with certainty. These operations also 

 cause the plant to fruit at an earlier age. 



Stocks. — The citi'on stock is the best for 

 erange, lemon-citron, and probably for all the 

 species. It grows more quickly, and causes 

 the graft to fruit sooner, as it would appear : 

 fortunately, then, the citron is the most ea- 

 sily propagated by cuttings. It is said that 

 in the neighborhood of Seville, the stocks 

 used are raised from seed of the bitter or- 

 ange. Loudon says : " Shaddock stocks are 

 the sti'ongest, and next to these the citron." 

 " Four years old is a good age for stocks." I 

 conceive, however, that with all trees, but 

 especially the orange — as the gi-owth of the 

 bark is veiy slow over womids m the trees, 

 unless covered with a composition to exclude 

 the air — it is better, whether in budduig or 

 grafting, to follow the modern British prac- 

 tice of grafting — that of using small stocks. 



BuDDi.vG. — In btxdding, observe that the 

 shoots from which you take your buds are 

 round, the buds of these being much better 

 and easier to part from the wood than of such 

 as are flat and angular. Let the buds be in- 

 serted at the south side of the stock. By in- 

 serting more than one, you mcrease ihe 

 chances of success. In a month it will be 

 observable which have taken ; then untie 

 them. A head may be formed by cutting 

 back the shoot from one of the buds — destioy- 

 ing the other if it have taken — to four buds 

 or eyes. The stock .ohnuld be tsiken oft', if 

 small, with a knife ; if large, with a hue saw; 

 the cut should be made in a slanting direc- 

 tion — not directly across the stock — the cut 

 terminating immediately above the inserted 

 bud. The operation of budding may be per- 

 formed at any season. 



Grafting. — This operation also may be 

 performed at any time. Whip grafting is 

 j)robably the best mode : grafting the stocks 

 when small — in fact with the stock and graft 

 iis nearly as possible of the same size. A va- 

 riety of the whip manner is described bv 

 Gushing, in which \\\c top of the stock is lei't 

 on. from the scion as tor the common whip- 

 graft, and then, without taking olV the head 

 of the stock, cut from the clearest part of its 



stem an equal splice as smootlily as possible ; 

 do not tongue the scion, but tie it (jn neatly 

 and firmly with matting and clay, in the man- 

 ner of a graft. AVhen the scion begins to 

 grow, remove the matting by degrees. I 

 have sometimes seen the orange grafted un- 

 der the surface of the ground, removing the 

 earth from around the stock so as to lay it 

 bare down to the roots, iuid inserting the 

 graft as low as possible. When the opera- 

 tion has been finished, replace enough earth 

 to completely cover the insertion of the graft. 

 These grafts are to be treated as those insert- 

 ed above-gi'ound, except that they need not 

 be clayed. Cut otTthe stock as directed un- 

 der the head of budding. 



Sked and Seedlings. — In raising plants 

 from seed, if the seeds be received fiom 

 abroad, they should be sown immediately, as 

 they will not keep many weeks after having 

 been taken from the iniit. The seed from 

 I'otten fruit is tlie best. It behooves every one 

 who is interested in extending the culti- 

 vation of these plants to be on the look-out 

 for the seeds of such fruit as come within their 

 reach, whether the produce of the Colony, or 

 imported, for we occasionally receive them 

 from the Cape, and from the East. 



If taken from the fruit, first dry them ; then 

 sow in light, rich eaith, covering them about 

 a quarter of an inch. In three weeks they 

 will be up, if the weather be genial. When 

 they shall have been up a month, transplant 

 into pots, or, for want of these, small boxes, 

 singly or into imrsery rows 18 inches by 6, 

 accorchng to convenience. The pots or 

 boxes should be sunk to the edge in the 

 ground, to prevent the risk of the mould be- 

 coming di-y by the sun or wnd. The advan- 

 tage of having single plants in pots or boxes 

 is, that when you form your orangery, you 

 may at once turn each tree out into its place 

 without checking its growth. They are 

 planted so close in the nursen.' rows, that 

 they may be drawn up with straight stems. 

 If preferred, the planting out into pots or 

 rows may be deferred till they ai e half a 

 year old, or more, titking advantage of the 

 proper planting seiison, indicated by the dor- 

 mancy of the plant. If, however, you j)lant 

 in a drv soil, the removal shouhl take place 

 from April to ,Tune. 



Layers. — In this country, where we have 

 so little fruit whcn<e to obtain seed, and tlie 

 snp]ilv from abroad is so scanty, every means 

 should be had recourse to for increasing the 

 number of i>lants. Layering seems to be the 

 common mode of producing them in St. Mi- 



