GRAFTING THE GRAPE. 65 



ant to know how to perform the operation successfully. 

 There are usually in every garden where grapes are grown, 

 inferior varieties which it is desirable to exchange for bet- 

 ter, and if we employ grafting as a method of propagation, 

 then these otherwise worthless vines may become valuable 

 as stocks on which to graft better kinds ; and if by the use 

 of these we can make every bud to produce a shoot of from 

 five to twenty feet in a single season, of larger and better 

 wood than we can by any other means, and that, too, with- 

 out the aid of any artificial heat, it becomes very important 

 to know how to do it. Sometimes it would be desirable 

 to change a whole vineyard from an inferior variety to a 

 new and superior one, and if the operation is judiciously 

 performed, it can be successfully done ; but I will consider 

 this further on. The time generally selected for grafting 

 the vine is early in spring, before the vine starts, or after 

 it has started and made a growth of a few inches ; both 

 of which I have found highly objectionable; for if grafted 

 early, the operation must be performed several weeks be- 

 fore the vine starts, so as to allow the graft sufficient time 

 to form a union with the stock before the latter starts, or 

 else the excessive flow of sap will drown the graft. This 

 early grafting is very difficult in a northern latitude, where 

 the ground thaws out only a very few days before the sap 

 begins to flow. It is always desirable to graft the grape 

 below ground. If we wait until the vine has begun to 

 produce leaves, and the sap has thickened and flows less 

 rapidly, then by cutting down the vine to receive the graft 

 we give it a severe check, which often destroys it ; and if 

 not entirely killed, it is so much injured that it does not 

 afford sufficient nourishment to the graft to produce a very 

 strong growth. Besides, if hot, dry weather sets in, the 

 graft is almost sure to fail. 



Another reason why grafts do not unite more readily 

 with the stock at this season is because the sap in the vine 

 is in a state of active circulation, and in a different condi- 



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