12 PROPAGATION. 



CHAPTER II. 







PROPAGATION OF VARIETIES. GRAFTING. BUDDING. CUTTINGS 

 LAYERS AND SUCKERS. 



AFTER having obtained a new and choice kind of fruit, which 

 in our hands is perhaps only a single tree, and which, as we 

 have already shown, seldom produces the same from seed, the 

 next inquiry is how to continue this variety in existence, and 

 how to increase and extend it, so that other gardens and coun- 

 tries may possess it as well as ourselves. This leads us to the 

 subject of the propagation of fruit trees, or the continuation of 

 varieties by grafting and budding. 



Grafting and budding are the means in most common use for 

 propagating fruit trees. They are, in fact, nothing more than 

 inserting upon one tree, the shoot or bud of another, in such a 

 manner that the two may unite and form a new compound. No 

 person having any interest in a garden should be unable to per- 

 form these operations, as they are capable of effecting transfor- 

 mations and improvements in all trees and shrubs, no less valu- 

 able, than they are beautiful and interesting. 



Grafting is a very ancient invention, having been well known 

 and practised by the Greeks and Romans. The latter, indeed, 

 describe a great variety of modes, quite as ingenious as any of 

 the fanciful variations now used by gardeners. The French, 

 who are most expert in grafting, practise occasionally more 

 than fifty modes, and within a few years have succeeded per- 

 fectly in grafting annual plants, such as the tomato, the dahlia, 

 and the like. 



The uses of grafting, and budding, as applied to fruit trees, 

 may be briefly stated as follows : 



1. The rapid increase or propagation of valuable sorts of fruit 

 not easily raised by seeds, or cuttings, as is the case with nearly 

 all varieties. 



2. To renew or alter the heads of trees, partially or fully 

 grown, producing in two or three years, by heading-in and 

 grafting, a new head, bearing the finest fruit, on a formerly 

 worthless tree. 



3. To render certain foreign and delicate sorts of fruit more 

 hardy by grafting them on robust stocks of the same species na- 

 tive to the country, as the foreign grape on the native. And to 

 produce fine fruit in climates or situations not naturally favour- 

 able by grafting on another species more hardy ; as in a coo] 



