58 NEW METHODS OF GRAFTING AND BUDDING. 



BUDDING WITH OR WITHOUT SAP-WOOD.* 



BY CH. CLARAC, 

 Farm Manager at the School of Agriculture, Saint-Sever. 



HERBACEOUS BUDDING WITH SAP-WOOD. 



The budding with lignified wood is a very ancient graft, 

 although some modern viticulturists think they have invented 

 it. This graft has been applied for a very long time, on the 

 most diverse stocks, and it has never received any modifica- 

 tion except that which consists in scraping the inner bark of 

 the scion. We do not know if this modification may [be 

 looked upon or regarded as an improvement, for it means a 

 complication in the work, which is not compensated by the 

 increase of the percentage of strikes. We never had more 

 than 50 per cent, strikes at the best seasons, and even then 

 the knittings were not always perfect. These unsatisfactory 

 results might be due to a defect in the execution ; however 

 we think that, under the actual conditions of grafting, this 

 improvement must be disregarded. We attribute these 

 failures to another cause. From personal researches, it 

 results that the non-success of this graft must be accounted 

 for by the method used in excising the bud, causing it to 

 split in many places. 



This accident cannot be avoided, and always takes place 

 at the beginning of the cut. This split wood does not 

 knit, and, on account of its desiccation, prevents the knitting 

 from being complete when it does not kill the graft alto- 

 gether. To insure success in budding with lignified wood 

 we must excise the scion, without splitting it. This is the 

 only modification we make in the old well-known method 

 of budding. 



We operate in the following manner : 1st. Make a slant- 

 ing cut, starting at the opposite side of the bud to be excised 

 J inch above it and ending \ inch below. This cut is con- 

 cave (cut a c b y Fig. 64), the operator will get rid of a 

 useless portion of the cane (abd). This part bears the wood, 

 bruised by the grafting-knife. 2nd. The cane is reversed end 

 to end, its natural extremity pointing towards the body of 



* Revue de Viticulture, vol. X., 1898. 



