64 



THE CANADIAN H0RTICULTUM8T. 



appearance of specimens upon the table, 

 and there is always a tendency this 

 way, especially among amateur judges, 

 which I believe is often fruitful of a 

 great amount of damage, as growers 

 ai'e so apt to adopt varieties thus ap- 

 proved of by judges. A. comparatively 

 worthless variety may be so grown as 

 to appear magnificent, as a tree that out- 

 wai'dly seems healthy and flourishing 

 may be rotten at the heart. We gener- 

 ally find that specimens of fi-uits being 

 newly introduced are very fine, simply 

 because the introducer wishes to make 

 a good impression, and hence grows 

 specially for the purpose of advertising 

 his goods without regard to immediate 

 cost. In these cases judges should 

 carefully scrutinize the quality, and 

 state in their report any other facts 

 found, so that the public interests be 

 properly guarded. 



Alex. McD. Allan. 



ORAFTING AND PRUNING GRAPE 

 VINES. 



Your correspondent wishes to know 

 how to graft his vines. I suppose why 

 not inarch them, that is, grafting by 

 approach. Yery suitable and safe. 

 Have your new or superior kind in a 

 pot or box ; place it near and securely 

 — near enough to be in a convenient 

 position to form a junction with the 

 stock. Then pare oflf with a sharp 

 knife a slice from each of equal size. 

 Bring the two wounds together as 

 exactly as possible, fitting bark to bark : 

 hold them firmly and tie them together, 

 not so tight as to bruise the bark of 

 either. Now tie some moss around the 

 junction and moisten it every day, or 

 cover it with grafting clay or wax. 

 When firmly united to the stock the 

 new vine in the pot or box may be cut 

 off at the junction and be planted out. 

 You can do the work later in the vear 



if you like on the young wood of the 

 present year's growth, when it has 

 acquired some solid wood, just when it 

 is beginning to change color. This 

 way requires care, for the wood is ten- 

 der and more liable to break than year 

 old wood. This young wood unites 

 more quickly than older wood. There 

 are so many ways of training vines I 

 think the simplest the best. For a 

 vine on a wall or building or trellis, I 

 think this is as good as any : — First 

 obtain two shoots from two buds left 

 on when the vine was planted. Train. 

 these upright, and in the autumn bring 

 these two shoots down and train them 

 right and left horizontally a foot from 

 the ground. In the spring, when they 

 begin to grow, select three buds on each 

 main stem, two feet apart ; rub all the 

 other buds off. Now let these three 

 buds on each main horizontal arm grow 

 up perpendicularly. During the sum- 

 mer stop all the laterals at the first 

 joint, and stop the leading shoots when 

 at the top of the trellis ; tie the lead- 

 ing shoots as they grow, or the wind 

 will break them. Now in the autumn 

 the vine will have two canes to bear 

 fruit ; that is, one upright cane on each 

 arm to fruit. The other two will be 

 cut down to two buds close to the main 

 horizontal stems. These will send up 

 shoots to be trained between the fruit 

 beai-ers, while the two end shoots will 

 be trained down in the line of the 

 horizontal ones. Now the third sum- 

 mer the last year's horizontal trained 

 shoots should have all the buds rubbed 

 off except two on each, two feet apart. 

 Train them up as the others to the top 

 of the trellis or wall. So now there 

 will be four fruit-bearing upright shoots, 

 and four to bear the following year. In 

 the autumn those that have borne fruit 

 should be cut down and the others left 

 nearly their whole length to bear fruit. 



T. A. H. 



iledora. Muskoka. 



