698 



PRACTICE^ OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



the lower end. Cut off the tip of the shoot, and all the buds, excepting two or three 

 liext the tip or upper extremity ; then smooth the sections at tlie lower end, and insert 

 them three or four inches in sandy loam, pressing the earth firmly to them, watering, 

 and covering with a hand-glass. The proper time for tliis operation is early in February, 

 and the glass should not be touched, excepting to give^ water, till the shoots have sprung 

 an inch or two. Shade during the mid-day sun, and begin to harden by giving air in 

 July ; finally remove the glass in August ; and in October transplant to nursery rows, or 

 in pots, according to future intention. With the burknott tribe, all that is necessary is to 

 plant the cuttings in a shady border, and treat them like those of the gooseberry or currant. 



4385. By layers. The success of this mode of propagation may be considered as certain ; as it has 

 nothing peculiar in its application to the apple, we need only refer to general directions (1993.) for per- 

 forming the operation. The after treatment of the plants is the same with that for those originated by 

 the foregoing or following modes. 



4386. By suckers. This mode is generally confined to the paradise and creeping apple for stocks. 



4387. By grafting and inoculation. This may be said to be the universal practice in propagating the 



apple. The first consideration is the choice of stocks ; of these, there are five sorts in common use : 



Seedling apples, used for full standards, and riders or wall standards ; seedling crabs, for standards 

 and half standards; codling apples, from layers or cuttings, for dwarfs and espaliers ; paradise apples, 

 or doucins, from layers or cuttings, for low dwarfs and trained ; and creeper apples, from layers or cut- 

 tings, for the best dwarfs or bushes. Dubreuil, gardener at Rouen, recommends the doucin for clayey 

 and light soils, and a free stock for such as are chalky and siliceous. (Horf. Trans, ^v. 5G6.) 



4388. Stocks of seedling apples. The seeds should be selected from the fruit of vigorous growing young 

 or middle-aged healthy trees ; but when wanted in large quantities, tliey are procured from cider 

 makers ; private propagators will adopt the first mode. The sowing and after treatment is the same as 

 for seedling crabs. 



4389. Seedling crabs. " A preference," Knight observes, " has generally and justly been given to ap- 

 ple-stocks raised from the seeds of the native kind, or crab, as being more hardy and durable than those 

 produced from the apple. The offspring of some varieties of the crab, particularly of those introduced 

 from Siberia, vegetate much earlier in the spring than the other trees of the same species; and thence 

 the inexperienced planter will probably be led to suppose, that such stocks would accelerate the veget- 

 ation of other varieties in the spring, and tend to produce an early maturity of the fruit in autumn. 

 In this, however, he will be disappointed. The office of the stock is, in every sense of the word, subser- 

 vient ; and it acts only in obedience to the impulse it receives from the branches : the only qualities, 

 therefore, which are wanting to form a perfect stock, are vigor and hardiness." 



4390. Seeds, sowing, and culture. In recollecting the seeds to sow, it must be remembered, that the 

 habits as well as the diseases of plants are often hereditary', and attention should be paid to the state of 

 the tree from which the seeds are taken ; it should be large and of free growth, and rather in a growing 

 state than one of maturity or decay. The crab-trees, which stand in cultivated grounds, generally grow 

 more freely and attain a larger sta'ture than those in the woods, and therefore appear to claim a prefer- 

 ence. The seeds should be taken from the fruit before it is ground for vinegar, and sown in beds of good 

 mould an inch deep. From these the plants should be removed in the following autumn to the nursery, 

 and planted in rows at three feet distance from each other, and eighteen inches between each plant. 

 Being here propei-ly protected from cattle and hares, they may remain till they become large enough to 

 be planted out ; the ground being regularly worked and kept free from weeds. 



4391. Codling s^ocA^s are raised chiefly from layers, which, at the end of the season, are taken off, and 

 planted in nursery rows two feet between the rows, and one foot plant from plant. 



4392. Paradise, or as they are called by the French, doucin stocks, are raised either from layers or suck- 

 ers ; and stocks from creeping apples (so named from their aptitude to throw up suckers), or the Dutch 

 fjaradise, chiefly from the latter mode. They may be planted in nursery rows somewhat closer than the 

 codling stocks. 



4393. All stocks require to stand in the nursery till they are from half an inch to an inch thick, at the 

 height at which they are to be grafted ; such as are intended for full standards or riders will, in general, 

 require to grow three or four years before being fit for tnis operation ; those for half standards two years, 

 and those for dwarfs one year. The ground between them must be kept clear of weeds, and stirred 

 every winter ; the side shoots of the plants, at least to the height at which they are intended to be grafted, 

 rubbed off as they appear, and all suckers carefully removed. Where budding is adopted, the stocks 

 may be worked at nearly half the diameter of stem requisite for grafting ; and stocks for dwarfs planted 

 in autumn or spring may be inoculated the succeeding summer. No great advantage, however, is gained 

 by this practice, as such plants require to stand at least another year, before they have produced their 

 bud-shoots. 



4394. Soil and situation of the nursery. " A difference of opinion appears always to 

 have prevailed respecting tlie quality of the soil proper for a nursery ; some have pre- 

 ferred a very poor, and others a very rich soil ; and both perhaps are almost equally 

 wrong. The advocates for a poor soil appear to me to have been misled by transferring 

 the feelings of animals to plants, and inferring that a change from want to abundance 

 must be agreeable and beneficial to both. But plants in a veiy poor soil become stunted 

 and unhealthy, and do not readily acquire habits of vigorous growth, when removed from 

 it. In a soil which has been highly manured, the growth of young apple-trees is ex- 

 tremely rapid ; and their appearance, during two or three years, generally indicates the 

 utmost exuberance of health and vigor. These are, however, usually the forerunners of 

 disease, and the ' canker's desolating tooth' blasts the hopes of the planter. In choosing 

 the situation for a nursery, too much shelter, or exposure, should be equally avoided ; 

 and a soil, nearly similar to that in which the trees are afterwards to grow, should be se- 

 lected, where it can be obtained. Pasture ground, or unmanured meadow, should be 

 preferred to old tillage, and a loam of moderate strength and of considerable depth to all 

 other soils." {Tr. on App. and Pear.) 



4395. GraJUng. The first business is to select the scions, the principles of which have 

 been already noticed (2043). At Avhatever season scions are to be inserted, Knight ob- 

 serves, " the branches, which are to form them, should be taken from the parent stock 

 during the winter, and not later than the end of the preceding year : for if the buds have 

 begun to vegetate in the smallest degree, and they begin with the increasing influence of 



