364 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



After obtaining the stones, it is not material whether they be im- 

 mediately buried, or continue dry a few months ; but before the 

 ground freezes, bury them ten or twelve inches in sandy soil, and 

 there let them remain till spring, and the ground is dry, ploughed, 

 and prepared ; then carefully crack the stones, and plant the seed 

 about as deep as you would corn, and they are about as sure to 

 grow. 



[From the same.] 



PROPAGATION OF FRUIT TREES. 



Messrs. Editors — Being considerably engaged in the cultivation 

 of fruit trees, it may not be uninteresting to tlie readers of your valu- 

 able paper to become acquainted with the different modes of man- 

 agement in the rearing of nurseries. In the commencement of a nur- 

 sery, too much care cannot be taken in the choice of seed ; no seed 

 should be sown, except those procured from large matured fruit. 

 Such selected seed seldom fail of producing ihritiy plants. Apple 

 and pear seeds should not be sown till spring ; as in autumn sowing, 

 the soil becomes so hard as to cause the plants to come up in a 

 crooked, deformed state. The following mode I have practised for 

 several years with the greatest success. Seed should be sown in 

 beds after the mode of common garden seed. When they are of suf- 

 ficient size to engraft, they may be taken from the seed bed, their 

 tap roots shortened, and transplanted into a rich loamy soil, in rows 

 four feet apart, and twelve or eighteen inches distant from each 

 other. When this is properly done, they may be grafted close to the 

 ground, after the mode of whip or splice grafting. This mode is 

 practised mostly on small stocks, and succeeds best when the scion 

 and stock are of an equal size. 



The scion, which consists of the young wood of the former year's 

 growth, is cut to the length of about four inches. This and the stock 

 are each to be cut in a sloping manner for an inch and a half, and 

 tongued. Tonguing consists in cutting a transverse slit in the mid- 

 dle of the slope of the stock downward, and a corresponding slope 

 in the scion upwards. Both are now to be nicely put together, so 

 that one of the sides at least, if not both, shall exactly meet ; and to 

 be carefully bound together with a string of cotton wick yarn, pre- 

 viously dipped into a composition of soft, melted, grafting wax. As 

 soon as the scion and stock are firmly united, the string should be 

 carefully removed to prevent girdling. 



The scion to be applied should contain three buds, which will 

 throw out as many small shoots or branches the first season. When 

 the two lower branches are of sufficient length, they may be trained 

 in such a manner as to form two perfect and natural trees, while tiie 

 top branch forms another tree upon the stock. This mode consists 



