GOSSYPIUM. 



GRAFTING. 



or that every district of country, shared, in 

 equal degree, the evils of this visitation. Some 

 have escaped with more or less injury ; but I 

 am inclined to think that these who have es- 

 caped with least, will have their turn. The 

 mode of cultivation makes no difference. There 

 are two modes, the close and the thick-set. The 

 last has become fashionable of late ; but I have 

 seen the isolated plant and the one environed 

 by the branches and overshadowed by the top 

 of its neighbours, equally afflicted. 



"I think you will conclude from the forego- 

 ing statement that rain or sunshine, hill or dale 

 soil, whatever the predominant earth, cultiva- 

 tion whatever the mode, stop not its march. 

 "We recur, therefore, to the existing controversy, 

 Is insect or constitutional disorder of the plant 

 the cause of rot? If insect, would they not be 

 seen in great numbers and where their ravages 

 are greatest 1 I have examined fields most in- 

 jured by rot, and could never make any disco- 

 very of them ; besides, the year of drought is 

 the year of insect the rot made its appear- 

 ance in a year of wet since that, it seems not 

 to have been affected by either wet or drought." 



There are some who think that the rot in 

 cotton is neither a constitutional disease of 

 the plant nor the result of destructive insects 

 attacking the pod, but that the true cause is a 

 fungus production or parasite, similar to that 

 which produces the mildew, rust, and blight in 

 wheat. As yet no remedy for this evil has 

 been found deserving confidence, unless it be 

 the substitution of the Petit-Gulf variety, which 

 is confidently asserted to answer the purpose, 

 by a correspondent of the Farmer's Register, 

 who had given a two years' trial with perfect 

 success. (Vol.ii. p. 548.) He believes the rot 

 which, he says, is most prevalent in, rainy 

 seasons, and in humid states of the atmo- 

 sphere is the result of insect depredation, and 

 thinks the new kind of cotton not agreeable to 

 the insect. 



The upland cotton is sometimes very much 

 injured by a disease called the rust, and also 

 suffers from the depredations of a greenish 

 caterpillar which eats into the bowl and causes 

 great destruction. The Mexican cotton was 

 introduced mainly with the hope of its resist- 

 ing the ravages of the caterpillar. The cotton 

 whilst young is also apt to be infested with 

 plant lice (Ophidians). The remedies adopted 

 against these are of the most opposite kinds, 

 namely, allowing the grass to grow for the 

 purpose of inviting the insects from the cotton, 

 or working and cleaning the ground with extra 

 attention. 



The cotton planters of Upper Mississippi do 

 not suffer much from the rot, the caterpillar, 

 or the rust, the greatest enemies of their crops 

 being the louse, snails and slugs, and a disease 

 of the stem of the plant commonly known by 

 the homely name of sore-shin. This comes on 

 when the plants are small and only have the 

 third leaf, and is supposed to be the effect of 

 wet weather and heavy, packing rains. In 

 Louisiana the planters complain of their losses 

 from the rot, rust, boll-worm, army-worm, and 

 rains. Such are some of the difficulties, in 

 addition to those commonly met with from 

 mtmospheric agencies, against which the cotton. 



crop in the United States has to contend, and 

 by which it is rendered exceedingly precarious. 



GOURD (Lagenaria vulgaris, calabash). The 

 gourd family flourish well in the United States 

 in the open air, and the several varieties make 

 up a large amount of the produce of the gar- 

 dens and farms. The large bottle gourds are 

 extremely useful among the country people by 

 whom they are used as dippers. Some of them 

 are so large as to hold nearly a gallon. They 

 are light and with good usage may last for 

 months and even for several years. If, after a 

 few gourds have set, the ends are pinched off 

 the vines, the gourds will grow larger and 

 better. Some kinds of gourds are cultivated 

 for their beauty. The fruit of the bi-coloured 

 variety is small and very pretty, deep green on 

 one side and yellow on the other. There are 

 several other varieties, distinguished by the 

 shape and appearance of the fruit. It is be- 

 lieved, says Dr. Darlington, that there are no 

 native species of gourd in the United States, 

 though the plant is said to have been cultivated 

 by the aborigines, from time immemorial. 

 (Flora Ctstrirn.} 



GRAFTING. In horticulture, the operation, 

 of aifixing one portion of a plant to another in 

 such a manner as that a vital union may take 

 place between them. Grafting has been prac- 

 tised from the most remote antiquity ; but its 

 origin and invention are differently related by 

 naturalists. Grafting may be performed both 

 with herbaceous and ligneous plants ; but, in 

 practice, it is chiefly confined to the latter, and 

 more especially to the propagation of esteemed 

 varieties of fruit trees. A grafted plant con- 

 sists of two parts ; the stock or stem, which is 

 a rooted plant fixed in the ground, and the 

 scion, sometimes, but erroneously, termed the 

 graft, which is a detached portion of another 

 plant to be affixed to it. The operation of 

 grafting can only be performed within certain 

 physiological limits ; but what these are, science 

 has not yet absolutely determined. In general, 

 all the species of one genus may be grafted on 

 another reciprocally ; but this is not univers- 

 ally the case, because the apple cannot be 

 grafted on the pear, at least not for any useful 

 purpose. In general, it may be presumed that 

 all the species of a natural order, or at least of 

 a tribe, may be grafted on one another; but 

 this does not hold good universally. The re- 

 verse of this doctrine, however, viz. that the 

 species belonging to different natural orders 

 cannot be grafted one on another, holds almost 

 universally true ; and, therefore, a safe practi- 

 cal conclusion is, that in choosing a stock, the 

 nearer in affinity the species to which that 

 stock belongs is to the scion, the more certain 

 will be the success. 



Grafting is one of the most important opera- 

 tions in horticulture, as affording the most 

 eligible means of multiplying and perpetuating 

 all our best varieties of fruit trees, and many 

 kinds of trees and shrubs not so conveniently 

 propagated by other means. Varieties of fruits 

 are originally procured by selection from plants 

 raised from seed, but they can only be perpe- 

 tuated by some mode which continues the in- 

 dividual; and though this may be done by 

 cuttings and layers, yet by far the most eligible 



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