VI.] 



PROPAGATION. 



147 



the end of March, beginning with the earliest sorts of trees, as 

 plums, cherries, and pears, and ending with the latest, as apples. But 

 seasons are different, and in a backward one the season for graft- 

 ing will be backward, and in such case, the fullness and bursting 

 appearance of the stocks, and the mildness of the weather, must 

 be our guides. Not but much more than the necessary im- 

 portance is attached to this matter by us ; for I have seen an 

 American negro-man, sitting by a six-plate stove, grafting apple 

 trees in the month of January, and then putting away the grafted 

 plants in a cave there to wait till April, before he planted them ! 

 However, it is certain that mild weather with occasional showers 

 is the best time for grafting. The mode of preparing the scion 

 comes next : in the early part of February, take from the tree 

 which you mean to propagate as many branches of last year's 

 wood as you think will cut into the quantity of scions that you 

 want : but in choosing what branches to take, let the vigour of 

 the tree guide you in some measure. If it be a healthy, flourish- 

 ing, and young tree, take your branches from the outside shoots, 

 for the upright ones at the top, or those near the middle, are more 

 likely to be given to produce wood than fruit. Yet do not take 

 branches from the lowest part of the tree if you can avoid it, as 

 these are sure to be more puling in their nature. In c^se the tree 

 be old, or weakly, then choose the most vigorous of its last year's 

 shoots, no matter where they grow. Keep these branches buried 

 to the middle in dry mould ; and, when the season for grafting 

 arrives, take them up and cut them into proper lengths. The 

 middle part of each branch wdll generally be found to be the best ; 

 but your branches may be scarce and few in number, and then 

 make use of every part. Each scion should have from three to six 

 buds on it; but six will, in all cases, be quite enough, as there is 

 no use in an extraordinary length of scion ; but, on the contrary^ 

 it may be productive of much mischief by overloading the head 

 with young shoots and leaves as summer advances, and thereby 

 making it more subject to accident from high winds or heavy 

 rains. 



209. The operation of grafting is performed many ways, though 

 no one of them differs from any of the others in principle, which is 

 that of bringing the under or inner bark of the scion to bear upon 

 the same bark of the stock ; so that the scion is (as I said before) 

 a branch of another tree, brought and made to occupy precisely 



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