340 EFFECTS OF THE GRAFTING AND BUDDING OF TREES. 



first, the whole is wet and full of juice ; and in the latter, 



the parts are shrunk and dried up. 

 Grafting and I mus t now mention, that, though grafting and budding 



fouathng similar ,._ ... ' ' . . , , „ , 



n effect, are so ver y differently performed, yet in their effect they 



i are perfectly the same; the first being the planting several 



tmt buddmg buds, the latter only one: but there are some reasons, that 

 preferable. . 



make the last infinitely to be preferred, where it can be 



done: and I doubt not it succeeds much oftener, as I shall 

 show at the conclusion of this letter. I shall now proceed 

 to the alteration effected in the bud and graft by the opera- 

 Effects of graft- tion. The first observation on cutting a graft, after it has 

 ,n *" been done about two or three months, is, that all the part 



between the two plants is filled with a moist substance ; 

 which upon magnifying you perceive to be the same wood 

 as the scion, only loose, and incomplete. Next awhile line 

 is seen struggling through this loose wood, and soon reach- 

 ing in a very undulating manner from the stock to the scion. 

 It always begins at the stock. To perfect this line, which 

 is the circle of life, six weeks are required. I never saw it 

 perfected in less. 

 JsMctkinof she The next is the formation of what Duhamel calls the 



from the old juice of the stock, which, being prevented from 

 continuing its course to form new bark, runs down the 

 division of the two branches, and joins them with a new 

 piece: for let the barks be laid ever so close, or even 

 wrapped one on the other, the old barks will never join ; 

 and it is necessary, that a piece of new bark should cement 

 the two edges. But the juice stops at the end of the join, 

 and it is perceptible by the extreme dryness of the two 

 edges, (so different from the rest,) that no juice passes from 

 one to the other. 

 Crafting cannot There is no communication therefore between the barks 

 improve fruit. ^ ^ two branches, of course the bark of the scion is 

 pure and unalloyed. How then is grafting or budding to 

 meliorate a fruit ? I believe, that there is not any thing 

 Repeated mere certain, than that it makes no change whatever ; and 



ir^ce Uabad that there is no practise that repays so ill as that of repeat- 

 edly grafting, and cutting down plants. It must exhaust, and 

 I have heard an exeelloit old gardener say, who has prac- 

 tised 



