67 



PROPAGATION, OE MULTIPLICATION OF STOCKS. 



There are two ways in which infant vines are produced by the mother vine, 

 intended for the multiplication or continuation of the race. The first is that in which 

 immediate, separate, and independent existence is provided for, and the provision 

 carefullv laid up in a flint}'- casket which contains not only the dormant infant, but 

 also a supply of food to sustain it during its early infancy, and until the apparatus 

 for talving up its food from the soil shall be produced, which apparatus is not directly 

 provided by the mother. This little package is called the seed. The other infant is 

 not prepared for immediate, independent existence, and scarcely appears to be directly 

 designed for separate existence, but rather for increase, in perpetual dependence upon 

 the mother. These infants are not only without roots, as are the other, but also with- 

 out SLny special store that is calculated to supply food while roots are in course of 

 formation, being particularly fitted to receive their subsistence through the mother. 

 These larger, but moi-e dependent children, are the buds. To separate and establish 

 these in an independent existence requires the assistance of art ; and there are a 

 diversity of methods for doing it, all of them proper and suited to different circum- 

 stances. 



Where there is a vigorous mother-plant of fruit-bearing age well established, in 

 good accommodations, this separation is more readily and expeditiously effected by 

 layering than by any other process. The conditions of perfect success are, that the 

 layer shall be properly put into the ground at a sufficient distance from the mother- 

 plant to not find the ground previously occupied by her roots, and that too many 

 plants shall not be taken from the same mother, nor from the same shoot, and that all 

 of the leaves shall be well exposed to the action of the sun during the season. 



One season only, suffices to bring the new plant to the best possible condition for 

 transplanting, and also to sufficient maturity of function for immediate fruit-bearing, 

 anticipating the time required for any other ordinary process by at least one or two 

 years, and avoiding liability to all intervening casualties. Tnis, considering the em- 

 ployment of the mother-plant, is the most expensive, but the best method. 



See page 38, Plate No, 25, where, instead of cutting off the two branches C, at a, 

 they may be employed to make two or three layers each, and one fine layer each, (if 

 bearing is not permitted,) with but little injury to the mother. But in operations so 

 important as this, (of Pla 24 ) it is not well to risk any thing ; for the worth of well- 

 established vines of this kind, it is difficult to estimate. I have referred to it chiefly 

 for illustration, layers being more advantageously taken in number, from vines planted 

 for the purpose. 



Good vines may be grown from cuttings, two or three eyes in length, the last sea- 

 son's wood furnishing nourishment to the shoots while roots are forming. The con- 

 ditions of success are, hard, well-developed, and well-ripened wood, taken not far 

 from its origin, from the parent stock, and set in moderately compact soil, carefully 

 prepared, that shall neither be wet nor dry, until the cutting shall become well-rooted. 

 The danger is, that the tender leaves, while but little or not at all sustained by roots, 

 shall become daiftaged, thus impairing the health of the plant at the beginning. To 

 make good plants, they must be forwarded early and rapidly, that considerable wood 

 may be made and ripened before fall, for with much green wood at the end of the 

 season, there will be corresponding immature' roots; and if little ripe wood, few or 

 no ripe roots that will be able to withstand the winter. Although life may not be 

 destroyed, health is often permanently impaired. 



A bed in which cuttings can be grown with a great degree of certainty, may be 

 prepared by setting four boards on edge, and covering with glass set in hot-bed sashes, 

 or better still a hot-bed with its frame and sash, waiting until the severity of the he«t 

 has passed, and shading from the sun until the plants have become well rooted. For 

 regulating temperature, a thermometer will be required, and care taken not to have 

 it rise above 90 degrees. The bed should be provided with a shading of cheap cloth, 



