VI. 



PLANTING. 



cutting is placed, sends up its sap into the cutting, 'and 

 makes it grow and become a tree. When a cutting is 

 thus applied it is called a scion. Certain stocks have been 

 found to be suited to certain scions, but these will be par- 

 ticularly mentioned hereafter in the articles treating of 

 the respective kinds of fruit. It is best that I confine 

 myself here, as much as possible, to instructions as to 

 the time of grafting, the mode of preparing the scion, 

 the mode of performing the operation of grafting, and, 

 lastly, to the treatment of the plant grafted. The time 

 of grafting is, generally, from the beginning of Febru- 

 ary to the end of March, beginning with the earliest 

 sorts of trees, as plums, cherries and pears, and ending 

 with the latest, as apples. But seasons are different, and 

 in a backward season, the season for grafting will be back- 

 ward, and in such case, the fulness and bursting appearance 

 of the buds of the stocks, and the mildness of the weather, 

 must be our guides. Not but much more than the necessary 

 importance is attached to this matter by us j for I have 

 seen an American negro-man, sitting by a six-plate stove, 

 grafting apple trees in the month of January, and then 

 putting away the grafted plants in a cave there to wait 'till 

 April, before he planted them ! However, it is certain 

 that mild weather with occasional showers, is the best 

 time for grafting. The mode of preparing the scion comes 

 next : take from the tree from which you mean to pro- 

 pagate, as many branches of last-year's wood as you 

 think will cut into the quantity of scions that you want : 

 but in choosing what branches to take, let the vigour of 

 the tree guide you in some measure. If it be a healthy, 

 flourishing, and young tree, take your branches from the 

 outside side shoots, for the upright ones at the top, or 

 those near the middle, are more likely to be given to 



