THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



109 



be greatly benefited, and would not so often have 

 to seek for a new variety ; and they would have 

 less cause to complain of short crops, and would 

 not have so much to say about spelt, cheat, &c. 



I said to two of my friends once that the grub 

 worm crawled or walked on his back, with his 

 feet up. They laughed heartily at the notion, and 

 said it was reversing the order of nature. I 



reckon I should be laughed at if I was to say 

 that spelt and cheat could be propagated from 

 wheal; but as I do not know it positively, I 

 wont say so. 



I am, respectfully, 



Your obedient servant, 



N. Ward. 

 Home, Nottoway i March 18, 1845. 



BUDDING AND GRAFTING. 



We copy the cut above and the following ex- 

 cellent article from Affleck's Farmers' and Gar- 

 deners' Almanac : 



"Although it is generally better for a farmer 

 to go to a nursery, and there select the young 

 trees he may require, yel every one ought to 

 have a knowledge of grafting and budding — 

 with this view a sketch descriptive of the pro- 

 cess has been prepared, and is here offered. 



11 Slocks for grafting or budding are produced 

 either by sowing seed, or from layers, suckers 

 or cuttings; but .the stock must be of ihe same 

 natural family as that to which the graft be- 

 longs, or have a close affinity to it. To use 

 others — as the sycamore for the pear and apple, 

 the walnut for the peach, &c. — may do as a 

 matter of amusement or experiment, but can be 

 of no permanent and real advantage. In graft- 

 ing, mere propagation should not be the only 

 object, for to secure a permanent union between 

 the stock and graft is of far more importance. 

 For apples, seedlings of the apple and the crab. 

 Pears, those of the wild species or of the quince. 

 Plums, seedlings of the common or wild plum. 

 Cherries, seedlings of any free-growing wild va- 

 riety. Peaches, on the stock raised from seed. 

 The apricot and nectarine, ihe larger sort of 

 plums. The season for grafting may begin by 

 the middle of March, and continue until the end 

 of April ; the grafts being cut into lengths of 

 four or five buds each ; the knife to be thin, 



small and keen-edged. Cut off the head of the 

 stock and the base of the scion at a correspond- 

 ing angle, so as to form, when put together, a 

 neat splice: the tip of the stock, if larger than 

 the graft, is to be cut off horizontally. Next a 

 slit is made downwards in the centre of the 

 sloping cut in the stock A, and a corresponding 

 slit upwards in the face of the scion B; in ap- 

 plying the scion to the stock, the tongue formed 

 in the base of the former is inserted into the cleft 

 of the latter, and so fitted that the inner bark 

 may unite neatly and exactly on one side ; the 

 splice is then tied and covered with clay or 

 waxed bandage. Other methods might be men- 

 tioned, but it will suffice for our purpose to in- 

 clude cleft and root grafting; the former being 

 adopted where the stock is much larger than 

 the graft, when the head of the stock is cut off, 

 and a perpendicular slit made, D, the scion being 

 sloped on both sides, C, E, and inserted like a 

 wedge into the cleft of the stock. Root-grafting 1 

 is performed on a root a little thicker than the 

 graft, and the more fibrous ihe belter; a quan- 

 tity of them may be procured in the fall, and 

 packed away in sand or earth in a cellar, those 

 from young trees being most desirable ; the plan 

 represented at. A, B, wdl answer best, and when 

 grafted they may be packed away in earth in 

 the cellar until the spring, when they may be 

 planted out. in nursery rows. 



" Budding. — This mode of propagation is ap- 

 plicable not only to fruit-trees but to ornamental 



