70 PROPAGATION BY GRAFTING AND BUDDING. 



for other kinds. M. Carriere, head nurseryman at the Museum 

 Paris, has shown us grafted close to the ground on Quince 

 stocks some fine specimens of those kinds of Pears which gene- 

 rally do not take well on the Quince. He had, without using 

 an intermediary, employed cleft-grafting instead of budding in 

 their case." At a meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society, 

 December 15, 1868, Mr Hames exhibited fruit of the Bess 

 Pool Apple, one sample being produced from a Crab stock, 

 while the largest and finest fruit was from a scion worked on a 

 Pearmain branch which had previously been grafted on the 

 Crab, 'the fruit produced by the double -grafted stock was 

 by far the handsomest, and points to further intelligent experi- 

 ments in double grafting the Apple, which, together with Plums, 

 Cherries, and other hardy fruits, ought to be as much benefited 

 by the process as is the Pear. It has often occurred to me 

 that double grafting might be employed in the case of the 

 Vine, and more especially for such varieties as Golden Cham- 

 pion, Golden Hamburg l Muscat Hamburg, Cannon Hall 

 Muscat, and others of weak constitution. Fruit of the white 

 Almerian or "Bowker" Grape, so largely seen during autumn 

 and winter in Covent Garden and other fruit markets, will keep 

 fresh and good for four or five months after being cut from the 

 Vine, and this without any great care in handling, as must be 

 patent to -every one. Surely this robust and excellent keeper, 

 flavourless though it be, might be used as a stock for late-keep- 

 ing Grapes ; or it could be improved by crossing it with pollen 

 from other good-flavoured kinds, and so be made the forerunner 

 of a race of excellent late-keeping varieties. 



Cutting and Storing Grafts. There is no better time to 

 cut grafts than at the commencement of winter. In cutting 

 and packing them away, there are some precautions to be ob- 

 served. In the first place, let them be amply and distinctly 

 labelled, as it is very annoying to find the names gone at the 

 moment of using them. For this purpose they should be tied 

 up in bunches, not over two or three inches in diameter, with 

 three bands around each bunch at the ends and middle. The 

 names may be written on a strip of Pine board or lath, half 

 an inch wide, a tenth of an inch thick, and nearly as long as 

 the scions. This, if tied up with the bunch, will keep the 

 name secure. For convenience in quickly determining the 

 name, there should be another strip of lath, sharp at one end, 

 and with the name distinctly written on the other, thrust into 

 the bundle with the name projecting from it. If these bunches 

 or bundles are now placed on end in a box with plenty of damp 

 moss between them and over the top, they will keep in a cellar 



