BUDDING AND GRAFTING. 121 



made to produce heavy crops of marketable fruit, thus rejuvenat- 

 ing whole orchards in a few years, which, if they had to be 

 replanted with new trees would require at least ten years before 

 they came into bearing. Old vines in graperies can be grafted, 

 and in a short time will give heavy crops of the new varieties. 

 Seedling hybrids of fruits, many of which would take at least ten 

 or fifteen years to become fruit-bearing on their own roots, can be 

 top-grafted on old trees and brought into bearing in a very few 

 years, so that the hybridizer can see the result of his labors, and 

 by the time the original seedling would naturally come mto bear- 

 ing he can have enough to supply orchards for the whole coun- 

 try. By careful selection of stocks trees can be dwarfed, as for 

 instance by grafting the pear on the quince ; the apple ou the 

 Paradise stock ; or the cherry on the Mahaleb. Fruit buds may 

 be grafted into espaliers to supply blank spaces ; or other buds to 

 fill up where branches have been lost ; or to strengthen the fruit. 

 Plants can be made fertile by grafting in the missing sex in all 

 dioecious trees. Rare species, where only one of a kind has been 

 brought from a great distance, can be propagated and made plen- 

 tiful by grafting it on some near or allied species, or on its own 

 roots. In small places many varieties of nearly equal vigor can 

 be grown on a single plant. Species or varieties which are natur- 

 ally delicate become more robust when worked on strong growing 

 stocks. Vines produce larger and finer grapes when worked on 

 more robust sorts, such as the Syrian, or the Black Barbarossa. 

 It has been said that the double yellow roses, such as sulpliurea 

 plena and others which seldom open their blooms to perfection, 

 grow and flower freely when worked upon the common China rose. 



Mr. Knight says that the flower-buds of garden roses worked 

 on wild roses, where they were abundantly supplied with nutri- 

 ment, gave finer roses than they would have done had they 

 retained their natural position. He reports many similar experi- 

 ments upon pear and peach trees with similar success ; but in the 

 case of the pear, the buds, grafted earlier than the end of August 

 or the beginning of September, became branches instead of 

 flowers. 



I have, myself, grafted hundreds of roses from November to 

 March, and had them bloom as well or better than good-sized 

 roses lifted from the ground at the same time. I found that those 

 grafted early, say during December and January, flowered better 



