/ 90 

 ORCHAllDS. -"'^ 



is generally considered best to graft but about a third 

 of an old tree in any one year, beginning with the 

 topmost branches. This is a very good rule, but liable 

 to some exceptions. If the tree is unthrifty and has 

 made but a trifling amount of wood during the previous 

 season^ we would graft half of it at once, and even in 

 some cases we have grafted the whole tree at a time. 

 The object in view should be to cut away so much of 

 the tree as may be necessary to produce a thrifty 

 growth of the scions. If too little is removed, the growth 

 will be weak, and the union imperfect. If too much 

 is cut away, we may get too large a growth, which with 

 certain varieties of the pear, is a result very much more 

 to be feared than the opposite. In the second spring, 

 another third or half, as the case may be, is grafted, and 

 the whole operation completed in the third year. 



The effect of thus removing in two or three years all 

 the foliage bearing parts of an old established tree is 

 that of an energetic stimulant. All the powers of the 

 tree are roused to repair the loss sustained, and, in the 

 operation it may be said to renew its youth. It puts 

 forth its energies in making wood freely and rapidly, 

 and assumes almost at once the appearance of a healthy 

 and vigorous tree. 



We come next to the treament of what are called 

 ' suckers,' which in the common mode of cleft graftilig in 

 the small limbs, make their appearance freely and some- 

 times in great profusion along the sides of the grafted 

 limb. One plan is, in theory, to remove every one as 

 soon as it shows a leaf: in practice to cut them all out 

 two or three or more times during the season. Another 

 mode is to carefully preserve every leaf until the close 



