78 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1899, 



on the parent plant two years, while Clematis, Grapes, Roses 

 and other quicker rooted plants are cut off from the parent 

 plants in the fall and healed in till spring or planted in the nur- 

 series. As soon as the rooted plants are taken from the stools, 

 a good dressing of manure is spaded in around the mother- 

 plant and it is pruned and trained for another season's growth. 

 Layering can be done any time, l)ut spring or early summer is 

 the l)est time. By layering such plants as Viburnums, Cornuses, 

 Hydrangeas, Loniceras, and others, salable plants can be had 

 in one season. 



GRAFTING. 



To go into the details of orrafting would be more than one 

 could do in a short paper. All trees can be grafted, and it is by 

 grafting that many curious forms of trees are perpetuated, as 

 well as most of our fruits. Many old orchards can be regrafted 

 with new species or varieties, thus renewing what otherwise 

 would be of no benefit. By grafting, wekk varieties can be made 

 stronger by grafting on a more vigorous stock ; others can be 

 dwarfed. New varieties can be tested by top-grafting on old 

 trees, and seedling fruits be brought to early bearing by the 

 same process, thus saving years of lime. To grow an apple or 

 pear from seed to fruit requires a great numl)er of years, but by 

 top-grafting on old trees only a few years. Thus you can 

 quickly find out you?" work of hybridizing, and if the variety is 

 worth anything whole orchards of it might be in bearing condi- 

 tion before the original plant was. It is not well to graft where 

 a tree can be produced equally as well and quickly by other 

 means. As I said before, I do not think grafted plants live as 

 long as those on their own roots, although there are some cases 

 where grafted plants have done much better than seedlings and 

 are less liable to disease. 



There are many kinds of grafting, I think Baltet gives nearly 

 fifty, but they are all a modification of one another, and four or 

 five ways would be all that is necessary in practical work. Al- 

 most every propagator has his favorite : still those methods 

 practiced by skilful propagators are best, and may be summed up 



