258 



"CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



like otKer fruit-trees, the Vine would Weed so 

 copiously as to render a union impossible, or kill it. 

 The operation, however, may be successfully per- 

 formed when the Vine is in full leafage or in flower. 

 This is explained by the foliage being so far ad- 

 vanced that the physiological function of transpira- 

 tion, executed by them, relieves the pressure caused 

 by the first ascent of the sap in spring, and thereby 

 carries ofE all superfluous moisture. Whip-grafting 

 is the simplest and best method to employ, and after 

 binding the stock and scion together, cover with 

 grafting- wax ; not clay, as the Vine would root into 

 it and frustrate the union. On vigorous stocks, 

 shoots are sometimes produced over twenty feet in a 

 season. Shoots intended for scions should be cut off 

 early in the year, and laid in u, moist, shady place, 

 where they wiU keep perfeijtly good till midsummer, 

 if required. 



The modus operandi, also of bottle-grafting, in- 

 arching, and bud-grafting, have been sufficiently de- 

 scribed in the articles upon Vine culture in Vol. I. 



Koses also have been so fully treated of in 

 ~ their proper place that nothing further need be 

 said in this chapter. 



The Walnut. — This tree is not so extensively 

 cultivated as it might be in the southern part of this 

 island, where the ripening of the fruit can be 

 depended upon with some degree of certainty. 

 Some difficulty attends the propagation of it by 

 the ordinary methods of grafting, on account of 

 its thick bark, and other peculiarities of constitution. 

 Probably the commonest method formerly considered 

 practicable in England was that of grafting by 

 approach, but Andrew Knight successfully budded 

 it by utilising the small buds usually plentiful at 

 the base of the wood of the current year, and 

 inserting them towards the top of the shoots just 

 one year older. On the Continent flute-budding, 

 and other methods practised in the case of thick- 

 harked trees, as described above, are employed by 

 the French for propagating the "Walnut. If size is 

 objectionable, fruiting-trees of small stature can- be 

 obtained by working fruit-bearing branches on 

 young stocks, which will come into bearing the third 

 or fourth year after the operation. Knight also 

 succeeded in grafting the "Walnut by allowing the 

 tree to make some growth, when the young shoots 

 of both stock and scion were destroyed, to induce the 

 small latent buds to push or swell up, when they 

 were grafted immediately, about the middle of May. 

 "Whatever mode of grafting, or budding, is employed 

 on the Continent, the tree is in f uU growth before 

 it is attempted. Although young trees are easily 

 raised from seeds, the improved varieties can only 



be perpetuated by grafting, or budding, on the 

 common sort raised from the nut. 



The Spanish, or Sweet, Chestnut.— The 



propagation of this tree presents no serious difficulty, 

 nor requires any special method of treatment, as in 

 the case of the "Walnut. The tree can be readily 

 raised from the nuts, and this is the most expeditious, 

 as well as the most satisfactory way to obtain large, 

 healthy, long-lived trees ; but for fruit-bearing trees 

 of a small size, they are best obtained by inserting 

 shoots from fruit-bearing branches on young trees, 

 which then produce fruit more or less readily the 

 flrst or second year from the graft. The best varieties 

 can only be perpetuated true to name by working 

 the respective sorts on seedling stocks. 



The Mulberry. — Cultivation pf the common, 

 or Black, Mulberry is not carried on to any extent in 

 this country, but wherever attempted it is important, 

 when grown for its fruit, to attend to the best means 

 of securing an early fruiting condition. This can be 

 done by propagating from cuttings of trees in full 

 bearing; but can also be efiected by inarching, or 

 budding. The "operation must be performed when 

 the foliage is so far advanced as to dispense with 

 the superabundant sap by transpiration. Various 

 methods of budding are pursued on the Continent, 

 and are considered not only more convenient than 

 that of inarching, but equally successful. Elute- 

 budding is practised in the early part of the year, so 

 that considerable growth may be expected the same 

 season. As the scion pushes, so may all shoots 

 that attempt to push on the stock be removed to 

 divert the sap into the graft. Eing-budding, and 

 budding with a dormant eye, is done in the autumn, 

 when mere union is all that can be effected by 

 the remaining energies of the ripening wood. As 

 soon as it has been ascertained that the buds are 

 pushing in the spring following the operation, the 

 stock may be headed down to the graft. 



These fruit-trees exhaust the commoner sorts 

 usually grafted in our gardens, but there are a 

 great assemblage of plants belonging to different 

 natural orders throughout the great class of dicotyle- 

 donous plants as well as gymnosperms, all more or 

 less important and necessary in garden economy. 

 Rare trees and shrubs of which seeds are difficult to 

 get, or altogether unobtainable, must be increased 

 by other means. So much depends on individual 

 character, or rather of species, and their inherited 

 peculiarities and physical constitution, that experience 

 in the fii-st place is the only reliable guide in such 

 matters. The same plants, under different conditions, 

 will have to be treated differently in order to make 

 success certain, or even probable. 



