40 NEW METHODS OF GRAFTING AND BUDDING. 



bark on both sides of the cut. A small opening is thus 

 made, in which the shield is introduced, sliding it from 

 bottom to top, so as to fit well under the bark. 4tk. When 

 the scion is introduced allow the shoot to spring up again 

 into its normal position. If the stocks cannot be bent on 

 account of their size or age, a T slit must be made, as is 

 done for fruit trees ; in this case the budding of the vine 

 is performed in a similar way, the only difference lying in 

 the method of excising the scion. The latter must be chosen 

 as above described. 5tk. Ligature with one or more woollen 

 or cotton threads of good quality, so as to be able to tighten 

 it above or below the bud. Raffia must be discarded for 

 small shoots, as it very often gets loose under the influence of 

 heat. It is preferable for the strands not to touch each other. 

 6th. Placed in this way the buds require from fourteen to 

 eighteen days to knit (Fig. 47). Those which have remained 

 green up to that time may be considered as knitted ; the 

 others are dried up, and must be replaced if it is not too late, 

 and if there is enough sap, or more exactly if there is an 

 interval of eighteen days preceding the 15th of August* at 

 the latest ; after this period of eighteen to twenty days, the 

 ligatures must be untied, cutting all the strands on the side 

 opposite the bud. The rest of the ligature gradually falls 

 away. 



Such is the manual operation required for this new mode 

 of grafting, an operation taking much longer to describe 

 than to perform, for in a day of ten hours a trained work- 

 man can make from 300 to 400 grafts without any help. 



But it is not sufficient to graft 400 buds in a day. 

 Vine-growers will want to know what proportion of strikes 

 may be expected with this system. To this we shall answer 

 that, as in any other mode of grafting, success depends on 

 the attention and skill of the operator. The experience we 

 personally have of this kind of work enables us to say that, 

 if the bud is well selected, and the stock in full sap, 70 to 

 85 per cent, of good strikes may be expected. My workmen 

 and myself regularly obtain this percentage every year. 



Preparation of Stocks for Budding with Dormant Eyes. 

 With the budding method we may, as previously said, first, 

 make grafted rootlings of mother-vines ; second, bud root- 

 lings in the nursery ; third, bud stocks several years old, 



* About the middle of February in Victoria. 



