272 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ground; therefore, it is best to use the inarching method in grafting 

 against this insect. For this method it is necessary that a vine of 

 the variety intended for the cion be planted about a foot from a vine 

 of the variety intended for the stock. The grafting may be done the 

 first year, if the growth becomes sufficiently hard to bear the use of 

 the knife. The grafting should be done in June, by selecting a shoot 

 from each vine, and at a convenient place where these may be brought 

 in contact, a shaving is cut out from these on the side next to the 

 other for a length from two to three inches. It should be a smooth 

 cut from a sharp knife, and it should be cut a little deeper than 

 the inner bark so that there will be a flat surface on each. Care 

 must be taken to get the cells of the one in contact with the other. 

 When you fit them as well as possible, tie them (or rather wrap them) 

 with some old calico torn in strips, or something of this kind. It is 

 best to have a stake to which to tie the united canes to prevent the 

 wind from disuniting them. They will generally unite in two or 

 three weeks. At this season of the year the growth is very rapid, 

 and on this account you should look over the grafts a few weeks af- 

 ter grafting, and replace the strings which have broken loose, and 

 loosen those which are bound so tight as to cut into the wood. The 

 wrapping should be removed in about seven or eight weeks so the 

 graft will be exposed to the sun to harden and ripen before winter 

 comes. The shoots are let grow the rest of the season, but in the 

 *fall, if a good union has been made, the cane forming the cion is cut 

 tolerably close below the union with the cane of the stock, and the 

 stock cane is cut oif close above the union. Suckers must hot be al- 

 lowed to grow out from the cane of the stock. When either method 

 of grafting is employed, it is advisable to keep the graft covered dur- 

 ing the first few winters with straw or soil, and this is more especially 

 necessary in employing the inarching method, to prevent the frost 

 from splitting the cion from the stock. Understand that the shoots 

 selected from the cion cane and the stock cane are not cut oif at the 

 time of grafting. 



Pruning is another matter of vast importance. Some claim that if 

 a. vine is allowed to take its own course — go unpruned — the fruit 

 will not rot, but we have our doubts about this. It is true that a 

 vine running up a tree or covered with something seems to be less 

 subject to the rot than those in the open vineyard, but we doubt if 



