200 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



summer. Last spring, 1863, 1 grafted about a dozen new varieties; all are 

 now fine plants, and nearly all will show fruit next year. Sometimes I 

 take a branch, cut it oflF at a smooth place, stick in a graft or two, open a 

 trench and lay the whole or a part in, and cover with soil, merely marking 

 where the graft is buried, mulch, &c. To say, as some have asserted, that 

 the grafts will not become firmly united to the stock, but are simply kept 

 moist by the stock until they can throw out roots of their own, or 

 that they never make durable plants, is anything but the truth, as I can at 

 any time show to the satisfaction of any person who chooses to verify the 

 fact. It is really astonishing to me that this 'grafting the grape' is so 

 little understood by the 'knowing ones.' ' Time is money' in more senses 

 than one, and especially so with the many new grapes that are constantly 

 brought before the public. To get the little forced plants — as a corres- 

 pondent expressed himself to me a few days since — 'it takes a lifetime to 

 get the fruits.' These spindly little forced plants may do well enongh for 

 young people who ' have time to wait,' but give me a good graft on a strong 

 root, and in eighteen months I can taste the fruit. 



"This season I had a fine little bunch to ripen on a graft set in spring. 

 I hope you will tell all the members of the Club not to destroy their old 

 worthless vines, with the object of replacing others in their stead — most 

 likely to plant little forced plants — as they would in that case have to 

 wait from six to ten years before they can even hope for a few delicate 

 bunches of fruit. Now, if they will graft in the roots or branches laid 

 down, they can have the new variety showing fruit the second year." 



Mr. A. S. Fuller. — The trouble abdk^it grafting in this latitude is that we can- 

 not operate in the ground at the most fitting time on account of frost. I 

 have had good success in grafting vines, and I have done it in autumn, 

 winter and spring. The latter period is the most uncertain, because if the 

 operation is deferred until the sap flows, it will drown the graft. I prefer 

 to graft a small vine, with a single cane, below the surface, but I have suc- 

 ceeded well by laying down a vine and covering it so that the upper bud 

 of the graft is just above the surface. If I had an old vine of any inferior 

 sort I would dig down to the crown of the root, and cut off the cane or 

 canes, and graft them by splitting and inserting the graft just like that of 

 any other fruit, being careful to insert it so that the inner bark and not 

 the dry outside comes in contact. Then fill in the earth, but not over the 

 upper bud, which I would cover by an inverted flower pot, and on that 

 some kind of mrdch to remain till spring, when it will be found that the 

 graft is well united. If I could set the grafts in February, I should prefer 

 that time, and would use canes the size of my little finger for scions. Any 

 one can see the advantage of grafting who has a vine from which he could 

 cut many scions, which inserted in a wild vine, or any cultivated one of 

 little value, would give him fruit a year or two sooner than he could get it 

 from such vines as nurserymen generally sell. If it is objected to grafting 

 that the old root may die and the graft perish after a year or two old, I 

 have to say that it is very oa,sj to bend down the cane after its first year's 

 growth, and cause it to strike roots. Vines may be laid down and have 



