G R A 



G R A 



bag. An acre usually produces about two hundred 

 and seventy pounds on an average. For this 

 use the first and last sorts are mostly cultivated. 



GOURD. See Cucurbita. 



GRAFT, the shoot or scion which is to be 

 inserted into the stock or branch in the opera- 

 tion of grafting. It is sometimes termed gruff. 

 Shoots or scions for this use should be cut ac- 

 cording to the directions given on grafting, and 

 be always made from such as are not too luxu- 

 riant in their growth or infeeted with disease, 

 such as the canker, &c. See Grafting. 



In this operation, though the vessels of the 

 stock and those of the shoot are joined by the 

 process of inosculation, and those of the latter 

 supplied with nutritious materials from the 

 former, their economy remains the same. It 

 has been considered by Mr. Bradley as a sort of 

 planting, the shoot or scion rather taking root in 

 the stock or tree into which it is grafted, than 

 uniting itself with it, as is shown by its preserving 

 its natural purity and use, although fed and sup- 

 ported by a mere crab stock ; which it is conceived 

 depends upon some difference in the vessels of the 

 shoot or scion from those of the stock. 



GRAFTING, the art of inserting a shoot 

 taken from one tree into the stem or some other 

 part of another, in such a manner as to unite 

 and constitute a perfect plant of the same kind 

 as that from which the branch was taken. 



It is by this practice that particular sorts of 

 curious fruit-trees of different kinds are capable 

 of being raised with a certainty of their being 

 the same, or not degenerating. It has been ob- 

 served, that though the plants raised from seed 

 are liable to run from their kinds, and afford 

 such fruits as arc not worth the trouble of cul- 

 tivation, those procured from shoots taken from 

 such trees as produce good fruit never alter from 

 their kind, whatever the stock or tree on which 

 they are grafted may be; as, notwithstanding 

 the grafts receive their nourishment from the 

 stocks, their varieties are never altered by them, 

 but continue to produce the same kind of fruit 

 as the tree from which they were taken : the 

 only alteration which they undergo is, that 

 when the stocks on which they are grafted do 

 not grow so fast, and afford a sufficient supply 

 of nourishment to the grafts, they do not make 

 so great a progress as they otherwise would do, 

 nor is the fruit they produce so fair, or some- 

 times so well flavoured. 



This process has the advantage, probably from 

 the supply of nutritious matter being not only 

 more abundant but more regular, of rendering 

 the plants or trees which are thus raised more 

 quick in their arriving at the state of maturity 

 or that of bearing.. 



It is on these different accounts that the prac- 

 tice of grafting is principally had recourse to in 

 raising different sorts of fruit-trees, as well as 

 some particular sorts of ornamental plants of 

 the tree and flower kinds. It also affords the 

 means of growing different kinds of fruits and 

 flowers of the same sort, on the same stock or 

 tree, as several varieties of pears and apples, &c. 



There are several different methods of per- 

 forming this operation, which arc distinguished 

 by different terms. 



Rind, shoulder, or crown grafting, is that in 

 which the grafts are set in a sort of circle or 

 crown. 



It is chiefly practised on large trees, where 

 either the head or the large branches are cut off 

 horizontally, and two or more shoots or scions 

 put in, according to the size of the branch or 

 stem; in performing which the scions are cut 

 flat on one side, with a shoulder to rest upon 

 the crown of the stock ; then the rind of the 

 slock is raised up, to admit them between the 

 wood and the bark of the stock, which must be 

 inserted about two inches, so as that the 

 shoulders may meet, and closely join the crown 

 of the stock ; and after the whole of the shoots 

 or scions arc inserted, all the crown of the stock 

 should be well clayed over, leaving two eyes of 

 the scions uncovered therewith, which will be 

 sufficient for shooting. It is a method of graft- 

 ing that was much more in practice formerly 

 than at present, owing to the bad success with 

 which it has been attended ; for, as the scions, 

 are placed between the rind of the stock and the 

 wood, they are frequently blown out by strong 

 winds after they have made large shoots, some- 



times aft 



er nve or six years g 



owth. Where 



this method is practised, there should therefore 

 always be some stakes fixed so as to sup- 

 port the scions until they have almost covered the 

 stock or branch. It is usual to perform the 

 operation in this mode about the beginning of 

 April. 



Cleft-, stock-, or slit -grafting, which is 

 practised upon stocks, trees, or branches of a 

 smaller size, as from one to two inches in dia- 

 meter, and may be used with success where the 

 rind of the slock is not too thick, by which the 

 inner bark of the scion will be prevented from 

 joining to that of the stock. In performing it, 

 the head of the stock or branch must be cut off 

 with a slope, and a slit made the contrary >vay, 

 in the top of the slope, deep enough to receive 

 the scion, which should be cut sloping like a 

 wedge,so as to fit the slit made in the stock; care 

 being taken to leave that side of the wedge 

 which is to be placed outward much thicker than 

 the other : and in putting the scion into the slit 



