4 NEW METHODS OF QKAFTING AND BUDDING. 



agriculturists whose works we possess. Some of these 

 authors even acknowledge that they drew their information 

 largely from Magon of Carthage, who wrote an encyclo- 

 pedia of agriculture in 22 volumes, 540 B.C., and Varro 

 declares with remarkable honesty that he only abridged 

 Magon's works. 



After ten years' persistent efforts and successful experi- 

 mentation in Europe, several new methods of grafting and 

 budding above ground, applied to vines, seem to have almost 

 reached perfection, and their use tends to become general, 

 although they were at first condemned by viticultural 

 authorities.* 



It is interesting to note that all the efforts made during 

 the last ten years to perfect these methods tend, as they 

 become successful, to identify themselves with methods 

 already known to the ancients. 



So far as our ignorance permits us to judge, budding and 

 grafting methods as we know them were not invented in 

 one day, but have simply reached their present stage, which 

 has yet to be improved, by careful and reasoned observation 

 and perseverance. It is only by consulting and studying the 

 accumulated evidence of successes and failures of past genera- 

 tions, that more perfect systems will be found. In order to 

 try and forward this final result, and induce vine-growers 

 to experiment themselves, the different methods of grafting 

 above ground (as described by their authors when pos- 

 sible) known and practised in Europe, have been collected 

 and brought together under the present form, the object 

 being to enable growers to study, combine and perfect them, 

 and by making use of knowledge already acquired, discover 

 or improve existing methods, or verify under varied condi- 

 tions the results obtained by others. 



RAYMOND DUBOIS. 



W. PERCY WILKINSON. 



Viticultural Station, 

 Rutherglen, January, 1901. 



* G. Foex, Cours Complet de Viticulture, 3rd edit. 1891, p. W3. 



