GRAFTING AND BUDDING-. 



32 



at the time of grafting. If, from any cause, the flow of the 

 sap is arrested in mid-summer, vegetation should be excited 

 by liquid-manure waterings, moving the soil about the roots, 

 and a mulching of old hot-bed manure. 



Selection of the Scion. 

 The tree, branch, or shoot which is grafted on the stock, 

 and which it is desired to propagate, is termed the scion or 

 graft. The plant from which it is taken is called the parent 

 plant or tree. The scion should be of good quality, healthy, 

 hardy, and of sound constitution. An unsound scion 

 propagates whatever defect it possesses, and a bad selection 

 repeated for several generations leads to a degeneration of the 

 variety, which is, however, local and not general. The proof 

 of this is furnished by the sub-varieties of trees with 

 variegated leaves. The variegation is propagated by grafting, 

 yet the type remains none the less exempt from the disease 

 which produces it. Though the defect is not always visible, 

 as in the case of variegation, propagation with inferior scions 

 is sure to lead to degeneration ; one should be very cautious 

 about taking scions from a tree of unknown quality. In 

 nurseries great importance is very properly attached to the 

 vigorous condition and true name of the parent trees. These, 

 while supplying scions, are also carefully trained. They are 

 pruned in order to obtain a greater number of branches, but 

 care is taken to reserve, from one year to another, some 

 branches uncut, if it is desired to have scions that will arrive 

 at maturity more speedily. The shoots which are developed 

 on the upper part of an uncut branch ripen their wood sooner 

 than any others. "When a growing tree is to be grafted into 

 another, it should be planted for at least a year beforehand, 

 near the subject on which it is proposed to graft it. The 

 scion should be cut from the parent tree just before it is 



