70 



The Grape Culturist. 



the Hartford or Concord, both strong 

 but not such exceedingly rampant 

 growers. And I would prefer not to 

 use the Clinton as the stock for an 

 Aestivalis of meagre growth, if I had i 

 stocks of vigorous but less rampant 

 habits. I think there is such a dis- \ 

 ease as plethora in the vegetable, as i 

 well as in the animal constitution. I ! 

 incline to the opinion that much of the j 

 disease of our grape vines is traceable j 

 to this cause ; and I should fear to 

 provoke it by furnishing to a weakly 

 organized vine a superabundance of 

 nourishment for its digestion and as- 

 simmilation. 



Fourth. This axiom I lay down 

 with more confidence than any other 

 regulating the successful grafting of 

 the vine. It is that the process should 

 be accomplished when the sap is not 

 fluid, but exudes in a gummy state. 



This condition of the vino exists, 

 naturally, from the period when the 

 first leaves have unfolded to about 

 one inch in diameter, in the Spring, to 

 the period of the active movement of 

 the sap in the next succeeding Spring. 

 This occurs vrith us, in Eastern Yii'- 

 ginia, generally in March. xVs a 

 wound in the animal will not granu- 

 late, the precedent condition to heal- 

 ing, so long as bleeding is progress- 

 ing, nor until coagulation of the blood 

 occurs, so the wound in the lacer- 

 ated vegetable stock will not granu- 

 late and unite with the excoriated 

 scion, while the exposed faces of the 

 w^ounds are washed by the flowing sap. 

 Therefore, grafting should be ac- 

 complished only when the vine no 

 longer bleeds. A condition favorable 

 to grafting, even during the period of 

 the active flow of the sap, may, how- 



ever, be secured by removing the 

 stock from the ground, grafting and 

 resetting it. This is called hand 

 grafting, and inasmuch as it is much 

 the most convenient mode, and I have 

 had very uniform success in practis- 

 ing it, I prefer it in all cases whero 

 the vine has to be removed. 



Where the stocks to bo grafted are 

 in the nursery, I would lift and graft 

 them^ and plant them where they are 

 to stand, taking the hazard of a few 

 failures, rather than allow them to re- 

 main a season longer in the nursery, 

 even with the advantage of selecting 

 those that have attained the sti'ongest 

 growths for removal during the ensu- 

 ing Fall or Spring. The loss of roots 

 consequent upon the removal, can be 

 better borne under the severe restric- 

 tion imposed upon the surface growth 

 by the grafting process, than at a 

 later period. Indeed, I am inclined 

 to the opinion that it might be advisa- 

 ble, when grafting a avcII developed 

 vino of four or more years, to remain 

 where grafted, to subject the roots to 

 a pretty severe pruning; as it cannot 

 be suj^posed that an extensive devel- 

 opment of roots will bo sustained in 

 full health under the very limited de- 

 velopment of leaf and stem, which 

 occurs during the first seasons growth 

 of the graft. 



As my present object is to confine 

 mj'Self to general principles, I will 

 not extend this communication by en- 

 tering upon the details of the me- 

 chanical operation of grafting, the 

 more especiall}- as that has been fully 

 explained and intelligibly illustrated, 

 in the last volume of the Culturtst, 

 by other contributors. 



lliciLMOND, Ffln-uary 7, 1S70. 



