INGRAFTING VINES. 259 



A correspondent in Massachusetts writes me, that he has 

 pursued split grafting with great success by using composi- 

 tion which he greatly prefers to clay, this he puts on warm, 

 and ties over it a piece of bass very tight. Grafts set after 

 this method into strong stocks of the Black Cluster grape, 

 about the first of April 1829, grew fourteen feet the same sea- 

 son, and made strong wood : he thinks ingrafting may be 

 safely performed in that State as late as the first of May. 

 A friend in the island of Cuba, also advises me of his having 

 been very successful in grafting many fine French varieties 

 on wild vines of that island, which are there found in abun- 

 dance, and thinks this may perhaps form a new era in the cul- 

 ture of the vine in tropical climates. In the autumn, the in- 

 grafted vines should be treated the same as others of equal 

 size and vigour, and be pruned accordingly, the weaker ones 

 may be cut down to a few eyes only, and the larger ones be 

 left of a length proportionate to their strength. They never 

 fail to produce well the second year, and where the stocks are 

 very vigorous, and the variety inserted on them is of the 

 same character, they attain to a most rapid and extraordinary 

 developement. It is asserted that grafts, particularly where 

 the white are engrafted on the black varieties, are apt to die 

 in eight or ten years, when apparently in full vigour, and 

 where the wood is perfectly united ; but this misfortune may 

 not perhaps be without causes and exceptions, which a skilful 

 culture may discover and avert. I think the insertion of the 

 graft so low, that it may form roots from its own wood, is 

 calculated in some degree to obviate the difficulty, and this 

 can in most cases be accomplished. 



It is almost needless to add, that all tales about ingrafting 

 the vine upon the cherry and other trees, are alike fabulous 

 with those of ingrafting the peach on the willow, the rose on 

 the currant, and other similar accounts. Equally erroneous 

 do I deem the remarks that the stock of the vine has a greater 

 influence upon the graft than results from a similar opera- 

 tion performed on other species of fruit ; but that such in- 

 fluence does exist in many and perhaps all cases to a certain 



