22 



PROPAGATION OF VARIETIES. 



roots placed in the cellar, in sand, till spring, when they are planted, the 

 top of the graft just above ground. 



Grafting the Vine is attended with success in the cleft or whip 

 manner, if treated as follows : — Cut your scions during the winter or 

 early spring, keeping them partially buried in a cool damp cellar till 

 wanted. As soon as the first leaves of the old vine or stock have 

 grown to about two inches in diameter, and all danger of bleeding is 

 past, cut it off 1 smoothly below the surface of the ground, and split the 

 stock and insert one or two scions in the usual manner, binding the cleft 

 well together if it does not close firmly. Draw the soil carefully over 

 the whole, leaving one bud of the scion at the surface. If the root of 

 the stock is a strong native grape, the graft will frequently grow ten or 

 fifteen feet during the first season, and yield a fair crop the second year. 



Saddle-Grafting. Saddle-Grafting Large Stocks. 



Saddle-grafting, Fig. 8, consists in cutting the top of the stock in 

 the form of a wedge, splitting the scion and thinning away each half 

 to a tongue shape, placing it astride the stock, and fitting the two, at 

 least on one side, as in tongue-grafting. This mode offers the largest 

 surface for the junction of the scion and stock, and the union is very per- 

 fect. Mr. Knight, who practised it chiefly upon Cherry-trees, states 

 that he has rarely ever seen a graft fail, even when the wood has been 

 so succulent and immature as to preclude every hope of success by 

 any other mode. 



A variety of this mode, for stocks larger than the scions, is prac- 

 tised with much success in England after the usual season is past, and 

 when the bark of the stock separates readily. "The scion, which 

 must be smaller than the stock, is split up between two or three 



