PROPAGATION. 215 



viz. that if a late peach be budded on an earlier kind, 

 it will ripen sooner than if worked on a plum or com- 

 mon stock. This, however, may rather be the effect 

 of double working-, than from any precocious virtue 

 it may receive from the intermediate stock on which 

 it is placed. 



Experience shows also that if a free-growing 

 graft be placed on a diminutive growing stock, the 

 roots of the latter will be greatly enlarged in conse- 

 quence. This is a proof that the energy of the root 

 is excitable, and in most cases depends in its develop- 

 ment on the demands of the head. ^ 



The practice of cross-working fruit-trees has not 

 yet been carried so far, perhaps, as it might be. This 

 is a fine field for experiments which may lead to use- 

 ful discoveries and important results ; especially in 

 the preparation of young fruit trees for forcing, or for 

 houses or walls of limited extent. 



Grafting is performed in many different ways 

 according to the size of the stock to be worked, or to 

 the susceptibility of the plant to succeed under such 

 an operation. For large or old trees, crown and clift* 

 grafting are best adapted : the last is preferable, because 

 there is greater security for the grafts against the 

 effects of wind. Plants that do not readily take by 

 the ordinary modes are grafted by what is called 

 u grafting by approach," or " in-arching ; " this is 



* Both these methods of grafting are also suitable for very 

 small exotic plants, 



