314 Domestic J^^otices. 



in rearing grafts upon peach stocks, but more often ftiiled. A gar- 

 dener in my neighboriiood informed me that he once grafted upon one 

 huncU'ed peach stoclcs, and all the grafts died, and most of the stocks. 

 (He was always successful in grafting upon other kinds.) Last year 

 1 was induced to investigate the matter with a view to devise some 

 means of obviating this failure, as it is desirable in many cases to 

 graft in lieu of budding, persuaded that although the discovery might 

 be of no great practical utility, yet it would be an interesting acqui- 

 sition to the science of arboriculture. The peach tree is of more 

 rapid growth than any of our orchard trees, and frequently with us, 

 in congenial soils, the first year from the seed, attains the height of 

 six feet, with stems from one inch to an inch and a half diameter. 

 The circulation, of course, must be very active, and the sudden check 

 from heading down such a tree, will, in many cases, destroy it. But 

 should it live, the roots continuing in a state of activity, the scion is 

 overflowing, as it were, by the sap; that is, the sap flows so fast from 

 the wounds, as to prevent the process of granulation, by which the 

 coin is united to the stock. To graduate, then the supply of sap to 

 the wants of the scion, is the primary object, and the measures ne- 

 cessary to secure this conilition, are just those which tend to preserve 

 the life of the stock after heading down. To carry my purpose into 

 eflfect, I proceeded contrary to some of the ordinary rules for graft- 

 ing. In the middle of July, I selected the scions from thirty trees, 

 with four or five eyes, taking care to choose those which contained 

 leaf buds. The stocks chosen, were moderately growing instead of 

 thrifty stocks, and were trees of the growth of that season from the 

 seed. Before heading down, I passed a long sharp knife down en- 

 tirely round the tree, and severed all the lateral roots at the distance 

 of three or four inches from the trunk, according to its growth. This 

 done, the trees were headed down at a point where the stem was 

 just the size of the scion, or a little larger, as the scions were insert- 

 ed a little on one side of the pith. The insertions were made in the 

 ordinary way of cleft grafting. The scions were then secured by a 

 narrow strip of sheet lead, wound spirally over the whole length of 

 the cleft, and a small ball of grafting clay put over the whole. To 

 my gratification every scion inserted in this way grew oflf finely, and 

 the coming season will doubtless make handsome trees. I do not 

 know that the lead binding or mode of insertion is essential, and al- 

 though I have tried no other plan, yet I presume that other methods 

 will answer equally well, provided the pieliminary steps are properly 

 attended to. On other stocks I have grafted with success, with no 

 other binding or protection than the strip of lead, and have used lead 

 ligatures with great expedition and success in budding. The intro- 

 duction of lead ligatures was merely an experiment with a view to 

 expedite grafting and budding in large nursery operations. Thus far 

 I am inclined to give the preference to the old methods. When 

 heading down the stocks, I took care in every case to leave either 

 one or two small shoots, some leaves, or several nascent buds, in or- 

 der to continue all the functions of the tree until union had taken 

 place between the scion and the stalk. As soon as the buds of the 

 scion began to put forth, all below upon the stalk was pruned off". 

 When the scions were taken from the trees, the leaves were all re- 



