35o 



Garden and Forest. 



[July 16, 1890. 



The Evils of Grafting. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir. — As Mr. S. B. Parsons does not approve of Mr. Bur- 

 bidge's opinions on grafting, may I ask Mr. Parsons, whom I 

 had the pleasure of meeting in America, a few simple ques- 

 tions. 



1. I have a number of American Weeping Willows, and in 

 nearly every case the suckers of the common Sallow, on 

 which they are grafted, are springing up and killing them. It is 

 not in the garden proper and I am too busy to keep a man 

 looking out for suckers in out-of-the-way places. Let me ask 

 him if grafting in this and like cases is right. I buy a delicate 

 and graceful tree worked on a vigorous one, which must in 

 time kill it if not carefully watched. 



2. I bought one hundred plants of the common Pyracantha 

 to form a low fringe above a sunk fence where I wanted the 

 view clear. In every case suckers of the common Quince 

 came up, notwithstanding some care. Does Mr. Parsons 

 think this is right? In our country the Quince grows to twenty 

 feet high. I wanted my Pyracantha to spread about as a low 

 Evergreen on the ground and now I must have an eternal 

 light with suckers or remove the trees. 



3. The Ribston Pippin Apple is of so fine a quality that it may 

 be called the most famed of English Apples, but in England 

 the tree is generally cankered and decayed. For a trial I 

 planted it on every stock I could obtain, but I could not in 

 Britain nor in Europe get the plant on its own roots. To get 

 this apple into a vigorous state and free from the canker and 

 decay which affect it would be worth a million guineas to 

 England ! Is it reasonable to suppose that every Apple does 

 equally well on the Crab (or what we call the Crab), on which 

 we generally graft ? I have seen much to make me doubt it, 

 but I am doing what I can to test the matter fully. I think 

 from Mr. Parsons' long and wide experience and clear obser- 

 vation he will be able to throw some light on these questions. 



I could ask other questions of the same kind and I believe 

 his experience of the above mentioned sorts of disaster must 

 be considerable. I am sure he is too reasonable to forget 

 that the question is how the tree behaves in the plantation or 

 garden after it leaves the nursery, and not the convenience of 

 the nurseryman, who puts almost everything on a few easily 

 raised stocks in preference to more natural ways of increasing 

 trees by seeds, cuttings or layers. 



Office of The.Garden, London. H. RobhlSOIl. 



I will gladly answer Mr. Robinson's questions, although 

 I. see no connection between them and my reply to the 

 strictures of Mr. Burbidge upon a previous article of mine 

 in Garden and Forest. No intelligent or conscientious 

 nurseryman will think, under ordinary conditions, of graft- 

 ing a cion upon stock which suckers, or upon stock which 

 is not closely related to it ; but many nurserymen dissent 

 from Mr. Burbidge's sweeping assertion that "any fruit- 

 bearing or ornamental tree which will not succeed on its 

 own roots had better go to the rubbish pile at once." They 

 will also object to his assertion that "grafting is always 

 a makeshift, and very often a fraud," as a reflection upon 

 a large body of respectable men. And now for the 

 questions. 



1. The American Weeping Willow grows readily from 

 cuttings and can be trained to any required height. I can 

 see no advantage in grafting it. 



2. We grow the Pyracantha by the thousand for hedges, 

 and grow it by cuttings only. Seedlings will not answer 

 here, for one variety only is hardy, and this will not come 

 true from seed. 1 cannot conceive why any one should 

 go to the expense of grafting on an unrelated stock like the 

 Quince, or why any one should graft an evergreen tree on 

 the root of a deciduous tree. 



3. I do not know the cause of the failure of the Ribston 

 Pippin. It may be an inherent weakness of constitution, 

 and in that case a plant grown from layers would be 

 equally weak. We have similar trouble in this country 

 with the Newtown Pippin, and we overcome it by grafting 

 twice, just as the French do to the Pomme Chataign, a 

 variety which also has inherent weakness. In this double 

 working we have a remedy which it would be unwise to 

 neglect, although it is still more "unnatural" than grafting 

 once. Transfusion of blood may be unnatural, but it has 

 saved human life. If the Ribston Pippin cannot be grown 



by double grafting, I would try layering; but the American 

 market could never be supplied in this slow and expensive 

 way. 



Of course I can see no reason why plants which take 

 root readily from cuttings should be increased by grafting, 

 and I yesterday found myself very impatiently rooting out 

 some Tea Roses which I had imported from England, and 

 which were budded and overgrown by the stock. Our 

 largest Rose-growers here, who produce 800,000 plants a 

 year of Teas and Hybrid Perpetuals, grow them from cut- 

 tings only, and we cannot understand why English nur- 

 serymen bud Rose's at all, unless it is some sort like the 

 Persian Yellow, which does not strike readily from cuttings. 



There is little need of adding anything on the general 

 subject of grafting to what I have already said. Nearly all 

 horticultural operations, even to the transplanting of seed- 

 lings, are "unnatural" in one sense. That is, they differ 

 from Nature's ways, although they may not be opposed to 

 Nature's laws. But why should it be called " more 

 natural " to force a cutting to throw out roots than to place 

 it on a stock and allow it to make use of roots already 

 formed? I should use cuttings where they will root 

 readily, because it is easier and cheaper than grafting. I 

 have never observed that a tree from a cutting was more 

 vigorous or long-lived than one from a graft when properly 

 set. Near the spot- where I am writing is an Oriental 

 Spruce, which is one of the most beautiful and completely 

 furnished specimens I have ever seen of any conifer. It 

 was grafted forty years ago on a stock of Norway Spruce. 

 Propagation by seed is probably the most "natural," but 

 this is impossible when varieties are to be preserved. 

 I know grafted Apple-trees a century old that are as healthy 

 as any seedling tree. Seedling Apple-trees have sprung up 

 all over the older settled parts of this country, and there 

 are no statistics to show that as a class they are longer- 

 lived than grafted trees. Some die young, some live to an 

 old age, according to their vigor of constitution and the 

 congeniality of their surroundings, and it is the same with 

 grafted trees. I can show Mr. Robinson grafted Apple- 

 trees still in healthy bearing condition which my father 

 planted seventy-five years ago. 



Flushing, L. I. 



*S\ B. Parsons. 



Low Spear Grass. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — I enclose a sample of short grass which almost covers 

 my lawn. It comes into flower and seed when not more than 

 an inch or two high, so that the lawn looks gray and bad for 

 patches of several rods square sometimes. It seems to be a 

 good fighter and able to clean out other varieties and take 

 possession entirely. Please tell me what species this is and 

 what is to be done to exterminate it. It seems to get the best 

 of Blue Grass even. It is certainly much worse here this year 

 than it has ever been before. 



Madison, N.J. R- J- 



[The enclosed was a specimen of Poa annua, Low 

 Spear Grass, a near relative of June Grass and Fowl 

 Meadow Grass, though differing much from these in habit. 

 It is not a native of America, but comes from Europe. It 

 may grow an inch high, or in new, rich soil a foot high. 

 It loves cool, moist weather, and in damp soil and a cool 

 climate it thrives well in the shade. A little scorching sun- 

 light checks the plants on a dry soil at once and they 

 soon die. Only very small, young plants, if any, live over 

 winter. The blossoms appear very early in spring, 

 probably before those of any other grass. Three or 

 four distinct crops, possibly more, may pass in a single 

 year from the seedling to the seeding plant ; but we never 

 heard before that it would crowd out Blue Grass. Profes- 

 sor Beal writes of this grass: 



" I had for a long time considered it solely a nuisance 

 on the farm, in the garden or lawn, as it is small and short- 

 lived, but two years ago in August next I saw several 

 lawns under the shade of trees, especially on the south side 

 of Euclid Avenue, in Cleveland, Ohio, largely consisting 

 of this grass. It was not allowed to lack moisture, and 



