92 GRAFTAGE. 



erly done between congenial subjects. It is not to be ex- 

 pected that the practice is adapted to all plants, any more 

 than is the making of cuttings of leaves or of stems, 

 but this fact cannot be held to invalidate the system. 



It has been said, in evidence that graftage is a devital- 

 izing or at least disturbing process, that grafted plants 

 lose the power of independent propagation. Mr. Bur- 

 bidge writes that "any plant once grafted becomes ex- 

 ceedingly difficult of increase, except by grafting." Evi- 

 dence should be collected to show if this is true. All our 

 fruits grow just as readily from seeds from grafted as from 

 seedling trees, and it is doubtful if there is a well authen- 

 ticated case of a plant which grows readily from cuttings 

 becoming any more difficult to root from, cuttings after 

 having been grafted. 



But is there direct evidence to show that "grafting is 

 always a make-shift," that it is a " toy game," that "grafted 

 plants of all kinds are open to all sorts of accidents and 

 disaster," that "own-rooted things are in all ways infinitely 

 better, healthier, and longer-lived?" These statements 

 allow of no exceptions ; they are universal and iron-bound. 

 If the questions were to be fully met, we should need to 

 discuss the whole art of graftage in all its detail, but if there 

 is one well authenticated case in which a grafted plant is 

 as strong, as hardy, as vigorous, as productive and as long- 

 lived as seedlings or as cutting-plants, we shall have estab- 

 lished the fact that the operation is not necessarily perni- 

 cious, and shall have created the presumption that other 

 cases must exist. 



Some forty years ago, a traveller took apple seeds from 

 his old home in Vermont and planted them in Michigan. 

 The seeds produced some hundred or more lusty trees, but 

 as most of the fruit was poor or indifferent, it was decided to 

 top-graft the trees. This grafting was done in the most 

 desultory manner, some trees being grafted piece-meal, with 

 some of the original branches allowed to remain perma- 

 nently, while others were entirely changed over at once; 



