FOREST-TREES. 239 



from the flock on which they are grafted, fuch will have a 

 lefs dependence, having great part of their nourifliment 

 from their own proper roots^ To this circumftance I muft 

 alfo obferve, that I can fee no manner of difhculty in mak- 

 ing thefe grafts as genuine a fpecies as the original tree 

 from which they were taken, by cutting away the ftock 

 altogether, after they have flood two or three years, in 

 which time they will be fufKciently rooted to admit of a 

 feparation, and fucceed by themfelves. This hint may af- 

 furedly be improved to much advantage, and is only mak- 

 ing the fhock a temporary nurfe till the graft has acquired 

 ftrength. Where this method is to be put in pra6lice, the 

 grafts may be an inch or two longer than thofe before 

 mentioned, as, by giving them that additional depth in the 

 earth, they will the fooner and the more abundantly root, 



Th e feafon of grafting mufl be regulated according to the tem- 

 per of the weather in the fpring, earlier or later as that fliall be 

 more or lefs fo. The ufual time of performing it, is when the 

 buds begin to fwell, which no doubt appears very confiflent with 

 nature ; but as we feldom have uniformly mild weather for feve- 

 ral weeks after that period, I have in my earlier years often paid 

 very dear for my compliance with this fo common and feemingly 

 reafonable a'time for the operation, both from a continuance of 

 cold rains, and fliarp withering frofts, and that even after the grafts 

 have begun to pufh out their fhoots, from whence I have frequently 

 loft whole quarters of them : Therefore, from as mvich pradlee 

 with my own hands in grafting as perhaps anyone man of my age 

 has ever had, I advife, that the grafts, particularly of hardy free- 

 (hooting trees, having been cut and laid in the ground before 



