APP 



[54] 



APP 



at that period than during the season of 

 rest. 



Before quitting the subject of grafting, 

 it may he well to offer a few plain direc- 

 tions on that head. Presuming that 

 stocks, duly cultivated and prepared, exist, 

 the first thing is to provide scions ; that 

 is, a part of the kind intended to be 

 grafted on the stocks. It is, and has 

 been, a maxim, for perhaps centuries, to 

 procure these long before what is termed 

 the " rising of the sap ; " that is to say, 

 during the resting season. 



Such, then, being procured during the 

 end of January, or through February, 

 they are "heeled;" that is, after being 

 correctly labelled, and tied in bundles, 

 they are placed in the earth, in a cool 

 and damp situation, where neither sun 

 nor wind can penetrate. Here they lie 

 until wanted. There appears to have 

 been originally more than one reason for 

 this procedure. A pressure of spring- 

 business, even in former days, would 

 suggest this practice, and it would soon 

 be discovered that these retarded scions 

 possessed real advantages ; the principle 

 of which appears to be the certainty of 

 nourishment the moment that they are 

 placed in the parent plant, or, at least, 

 as soon as their absorbing powers are 

 fully in action, which Avill be the case in 

 a day or two. The parent stock is thus 

 much in advance of them ; and a root- 

 action has already commenced, which is 

 capable of supplying their utmost need. 

 The period of grafting is determined by 

 the rising of the sap; and this is indi- 

 cated, in deciduous trees, by the enlarge- 

 ment of the buds, which generally takes 

 place in the early part of March, in Bri- 

 tain. We consider that the buds of the 

 stock should be near bursting their skin, 

 or hybernatory, before grafting should 

 take place. 



This, of course, will differ, in different 

 fruits, as differ their degrees of preco- 

 city. For details of the process, see 

 GKAFTING. 



By cuttings. All the varieties may be 

 raised in this mode, though some, as the 

 Burr -knot, Codling, and June-eating, 

 more readily than others. Trees so raised 

 are said to be not so liable as their pa- 

 rents to canker. In February take cuttings 

 of the young shoots from some of the 

 horizontal branches, about eight inches 

 long, cutting off a portion of the old 

 wood of the branch attached to the shoot ; 



remove all the buds except the upper 

 three. Plant these firmly in sandy loam, 

 giving water, and covering with a hand- 

 giass, until the cuttings have well vege- 

 tated. Shade from the mid- day sun ; re 

 move the hand-glass in July, and get the 

 plants into the nursery early in No- 

 vember. 



Soil. The Apple prefers a deep and 

 strong or adhesive loam. The colour is 

 not so very material, providing such rest 

 on a sound subsoil, free from water lodg- 

 ments. If it is not so naturally, draining 

 must be had recourse to, or it will be 

 vain to expect success. They are, never- 

 theless, cultivated with considerable suc- 

 cess on any ordinary garden-soil; and 

 even on soils of a peaty character ive 

 have known them succeed tolerably well ; 

 but, in the latter case, the peat must be 

 previously solidified by drainage, culture, 

 c., for a few years, for we have never 

 known them succeed on raw, elastic peats. 

 Improved peats, indeed, will in due time 

 approach the character of common, dark, 

 garden-soils; and it becomes expedient 

 for the Apple to introduce both marl and 

 clay, and also sand. Whenever a sus- 

 picion exists of an ungeuial subsoil, the 

 best plan is to plant on stations ; which, 

 indeed, is the best plan to adopt in all 

 kitchen-gardens, where the object is to 

 get great variety in small compass, or to 

 induce early bearing. See article STATIONS. 



Planting. The soil should be trenched, 

 and immediately beneath each tree, ac- 

 cording to the extent of its roots, chalk, 

 stones, or brickbats rammed so as to form 

 a kind of pavement, to direct the roots 

 horizontally. Plant so that the roots 

 nearest the surface are twelve inches be- 

 low it. See STATIONS. 



Espaliers. When first planted, the 

 young plant is cut down to within about 

 a foot of the ground, and only three 

 shoots permitted to spring from it, one 

 of which will be the leader, and the 

 others will form the first or lower tier of 

 bearing branches, which are to be se- 

 cured to small stakes, so as to keep them 

 in their proper places. 



The following season the upright leader 

 must be shortened to nine inches or a 

 foot above the two horizontal branches, 

 and deprived of all its shoots, excepting 

 the three uppermost, which are to be 

 treated the same as before. In this way 

 the leading shoot is to be stopped at the 

 requisite distance above the horizontal 



