BUDDING ON THE VINE. 4/ 



We were so taken with the results that we bought two of 

 these grafted cuttings, which we dissected, in order to ascer- 

 tain what kind of adherence existed between the cambiums 

 of stock and scion. 



We were surprised to see that twenty days had been 

 sufficient to form a mass of cellular tissue all round the 

 periphery of the scion, and extending on ail the parts of 

 sap-wood left bare by the bark lifting on account of its 

 thickness ; therefore, the knitting was absolutely perfect. 



This being ascertained, we tried to discover in what way 

 the section of the bud had been made. On lifting it, it was 

 noticed that the operator had made an absolutely plane 

 section, taking about one-third of the diameter of the shoot. 

 Some of the pith had even been left, and the whole of the 

 scion was from 1 to 1J inches in length. 



With these data, we budded, on the 28th of June, ten 

 stocks of Herbemont, five years old, placing two buds on 

 their trunk at from 4 to 5 inches above the ground, pinch- 

 ing all the shoots above the grapes. A fortnight later it 

 was noticed that twelve buds had knitted perfectly, and were 

 already showing shoots 4 to 5 inches in length. They reached 

 3 to 6J- feet before the fall of the leaves, and enormous pads 

 of healing tissues had developed at the joint. These shoots 

 were pruned very short in February last, and they resemble 

 four years Valdiguier's gooseberry bushes, and bear an 

 abundant crop. Such results induced us to graft last year 

 many hundreds of buds on stocks of all kinds and all 



The results were always splendid on old stocks, but rather 

 doubtful on one or two-year-old rootlings. 



The following are some ideas and improvements we 

 thought advisable to make in this new mode of grafting: 



1st. It was noticed, in a general way, that buds accom- 

 panied by a latent axillary bud did not knit well, as in the 

 case of green budding. We attributed this to the fact that 

 a bud accompanied by a latent axillary bud had not received 

 the quantity of sap required to form a good constitution, or 

 that the small wound resulting from the removal of this 

 anticipated bud had caused it to dry through the evaporation 

 taking place on that section. 



To avoid this inconvenience, one must, when selecting the 

 bud-bearing canes, choose those with solitary buds of 

 medium diameter. 



