CHAPTER XVI. 



or GRAFTING. 



A well planted vineyard lasts from fifty to sixty years, often longer, 

 and during all that time bears well, if properly attended to. But it is 

 not in full bearing until the sixth or even the seventh year. This in- 

 convenience, which falls heavy on the planter, is relieved by grafting. 



If through any negligence or ill habit, the Vines begin to languish, 

 and make no adequate return for the care of their cultivation, it is m that 

 case best to resort to grafting. Indeed if we consider the trouble of 

 replanting, of grubbing out old stocks, of the long and arduous atten- 

 tion already spent on each stock, any means that will prolong the 

 existence of the plants is worth attending to. In certain districts of 

 the departments of Bouches-du-Rhone, Gironde, Cote d'Or and 

 L'Yonne, grafting is much in use and very generally liked. I have 

 understood that it is practised at Vevay in OhiO; where a good wine 

 is raised by the emigrant Swiss. 



The principal aim of grafting is to renew the Vine the same season 

 that it meets an injury from frost or drought ; or to substitute to a 

 poor plant, a slip of a better quality or different species. Grafting, 

 also, as is well known, has a remarkable power of ameliorating the 

 nature of the fruit. It is a very ancient art ; when applied to the Vine 

 it is easily done, and its success certain. The sap of the Vine ascends 

 by all the capillary vessels indifferently, without any distinction be- 

 tween the liber, cortex or wood ; a particular in which it is very differ- 

 ent from such plants as have their conduits of the sap exclusively 

 between the wood and the bark. This peculiar contexture of the 

 Vine fits it for slit-grafting through the whole of the wood. It is un- 

 important whether the scion be inserted vertically or slantwise ; the 

 wood unites to the wood no matter in what way they are joined. 

 The slit soon fills up, and does not canker as grafted trees usually do. 



Grafting, it must be said, is only applied to thick large Vines ; it 

 has been discovered, at least so the Vine-growers of Mame insist, 

 that it does not agree with slender ones. 



