., 



INGRAFTING VINES. 257 



far as where the .first roots appear, at which point it must be 

 sawed off, and the surface made perfectly smooth. The stock 

 is then to be carefully split with a strong knife or other in- 

 strument calculated for the purpose, and if necessary, a sharp 

 wedge may be used to open the incision until the graft is in- 

 serted, which on being withdrawn, will leave the scion firmly 

 retained in its position by the pressure of the stock. Where 

 the vines are very large, two scions may be inserted, and if 

 both succeed, one may be pruned off, or trained so as to di- 

 verge as much as possible from the other. It will readily be 

 perceived, that the graft before insertion must be made of a 

 wedge shape to suit the incision, and the tongue or slope should 

 be from three to four inches in length. Vines thus ingrafted 

 do not require clay or composition of any kind, but only to 

 raise the earth over the stock and around the graft, so as to 

 leave the uppermost bud even with the surface, after which 

 nothing more need be done than to give them moderate water- 

 ings occasionally during dry weather. 



The buds will expand in about a fortnight or three weeks, 

 one only of which is usually allowed to grow, and this as it 

 advances should be carefully trained to a pole, stake, or other 

 support, and the superfluous lateral shoots be pruned or rub- 

 bed off. With proper attention, and in rich soil, they will 

 grow from eight to twelve feet according to the variety, and 

 in all ordinary cases fruit will be produced the first season, 

 though this may rather be deemed a disadvantage, and should 

 not be allowed except where it is particularly desired to test 

 its character, as it serves to weaken the plant. Robert Sin- 

 clair, Esq. of Baltimore, ingrafted some scions of the Isabella 

 on the Chicken grape, during the season of 1829, one of 

 which grew twelve feet, and the other nine, and the lateral 

 shoots on the two measured thirty feet. Another mode which 

 comes under the head of pivot grafting, and which may be 

 adopted where the stock is too large to be cleft, is to saw off 

 the vine beneath the surface of the ground, then to bore a hole 

 in the centre with a sharp gimblet or some other instrument 

 calculated to cut smoothly, and to proportion the place for 



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