164 



OX GRAFTING* 



It may, perhaps, be imagined, that stocks of the 

 above description would tend to debase the flavour 

 of the grapes grafted upon them ; but experience 

 teaches us, that the stock does not impart any such 

 quality to the fruit ; for it is well known that the 

 Golden Pippin, when grafted upon a crab-stock, 

 produces the highest-flavoured fruit. 



It has been asserted, that great advantages 

 might or would result from grafting the Vine upon 

 the cherry-stock. c 



Yet these, receiving grafts of other kind, 

 Or thence transplanted, change their savage mind ; 

 Their wildness lose, and quitting nature's part, 

 Obey the rules and discipline of art. Virg. 

 e " If a Vine be grafted on a common cherry, or any other 

 of the kind, the grapes which it produces will be so remarkably 

 forward, as to be ripe in the season of cherries. But it is very 

 difficult to graft a Vine well on a cherry-stock, so as to make it 

 thrive and flourish. The following method has, however, been 

 generally successful. 



" First, bore a hole with an auger in the trunk of the cherry- 

 tree ; in this hole insert the scion of the Vine, and let it grow 

 there till it has filled the hole of the auger, and is closely joined 

 to the cherry-tree. Then cut off the Vine-branch from the 

 Vine, after which it will draw all its nourishment from the 

 cherry-tree, whose sap will hasten the formation and maturity 

 of the grapes, which will be ripe near ttvo months sooner than 

 ordinary." * 



I have, from experience, great reason to believe, that the 

 Vine and cherry will not be made to unite and incorporate, 



* A Treatise on Grafting and Inoculation ( anonymous ) , 

 Salisbury, Svo. 1780; and sold by Fielding. 



