THE FRUIT GARDEN. 



375 



one may be insured; which is generally sufficient to leave, 

 unless it be thought expedient to leave two on the larger 

 branches, or on the stems of those trees which have been 

 trained horizontally, and have been headed entirely down. 



In grafting on branches more than two inches diameter, 

 crown-gi-afting is the method most generally used ; for smaller 

 stems or branches, cleft-grafting should be preferred. 



The period or season for grafting should always be regu 

 lated by the state of the weather. From the climate being so 

 uncertain in the spring, it is better to defer it till the circula- 

 tion of the sap be brisk, and the buds of the stocks begin to 

 break, attention being paid that the weak shoots of tender 

 trees will not admit of being so long cut as the more hardy, 

 and that the operation should never be performed while it 

 actually freezes or rains. 



Grafts or scions should generally be chosen from the young 

 shoots of last summer's growth, and those from the outside or 

 lateral branches are the best ; although we have both recorded 

 and experimental evidence to shew, that wood of more than 

 one year, and indeed of several years' growth, will succeed. 

 Mr. Knight, the Baron Tschoudi, and others, have grafted 

 young shoots in leaf; and Van Mons, at Brussels, has grafted 

 an entire tree of fifteen feet in height on the stump of another 

 of similar diameter. But for general practice, the outside 

 lateral shoots are preferred, because they are not so robust, 

 nor so apt to run to v/ood, as those from the centre or top of 

 the tree, nor so weak as those at its base, and under the 

 shade and drip of the rest. Such shoots are found from ex- 

 perience to produce the truest specimens of the fruit of the 

 tree from which they are taken. 



An exception to this rule is to be found when the trees are 

 in a sickly state, when, of course, the grafts should be taken 

 from the strong shoots in the centre, or near the top of the 

 tree. The ends of each scion should be cut off, unless it be 

 a sort which is wished to be propagated, and only one or two 

 scions to be had. In all cases, where there ^re plenty of scions, 

 use only the middle part, rejecting both the top and base of 

 the shoot; or if the shoots be long, and of a rare variety, they 

 may be then cut into several lengths of six or sPven inches 



