THE CULTURE OF THE GHAPE. 203 



leaves in autumn, until late in spring, or even summer, 

 when the scion can be kept back from sprouting. But if 

 the graft be on stocks not dug up, or stands where it 

 is to remain, it must be done in the fall or early part of 

 winter, to ensure success. In this way, I readily changed 

 my foi-eign, and other rotting kinds, into unexceptionable 

 native varieties. No clay, or any other covering of the 

 grafted part, is necessary in grafting grape vines even 

 with the ground. All that is to be done, is to saw off 

 your stock and put in your scion, (with two or three buds 

 thereon,) wedge-fashion, as in cleft-grafting fruit trees, 

 and then draw earth around a few inches high, leaving 

 one or two buds above ground ; or, where the stock is 

 very large, and inconvenient to split, I have made a 

 gimlet hole, and inserted the scion, spoil-fashion, and 

 then drawn the earth around. 



" But, to avoid disappointment, the vintner shquld be 

 aware that more trouble and attention is required in the 

 grafting process, to pull off sprouts from the old stock, ac 

 they spring forth to rob the graft, than in the process 

 itself; and this is far more the case in grafting to stocks 

 standing in their original place, than those procured from 

 the woods. To compensate for this, however, the growth 

 from the former is much greater than from the latter, 

 viz. : eight or ten feet a season, in the one case, but 

 thirty feet, not uncommonly, in the other. Grafts often 

 bear some fine clusters the first season of growth, and 

 pretty considerably the second." Mr. "Weller is of the 

 opinion, " that, while American vineyards far exceed 

 European in yield, yet they fall far short in strength of 

 the juice yielded, and therefore corresponding keeping 



