THE PLUM. 



217 



In a showery season, when the stocks are swelling after budding, 

 care must be taken to loosen the ties before they cut into the 

 stock, but they should not be removed altogether, or the buds, 

 being dormant, will be thrust out. This is often a cause of 

 serious loss ; the .ties should be taken off and replaced, wrapping 

 and tying lightly. 



Grafting is done in the spring, and, as a rule with propa- 

 gators, is only made use of to make good the failure amongst 

 stocks which were budded the preceding summer ; of course, 

 where it is desirable to re-work trees of some age, grafting is the 

 means to employ, but the plum does not lend itself to this 

 operation like the pear and apple, and the results are seldom 

 satisfactory. 



I may just say whilst upon the subject of grafting, that I 

 have searched a good many authorities upon this question, and 

 they almost all recommend that the cuttings to be used as grafts 

 should be in as dormant a state as possible ; most of them say 

 that they should be cut off in December or January, and taken 

 care of until required. With one exception, which I will give, 

 the whole of the authorities, both new and old, that I have con- 

 sulted, are agreed upon this point — dormant they must be. But 

 does this well-received statement rest upon any solid foundation? 

 For fifty years we have discarded it at Chilwell, and my fore- 

 man (who has been with us forty-two years) tells me that his 

 predecessor always took his cuttings as he was ready for them, 

 excepting of course in seasons when the weather was very mild 

 and buds began to develop too much, in which case he cut them 

 off, and buried them in a cool place for a few days, but never for 

 more than a week, or at the outside a fortnight, before grafting. 

 Again, one reads that when it is necessary to rework old trees, 

 the stocks should be headed back early in the winter to prevent 

 the movement of the sap; this is manifestly absurd, as the end of 

 the branches so cut back would dry up, and it would be impossible 

 to insert grafts unless they were again cut back some 12 inches 

 to get fresh wood. I was so much impressed with the constantly 

 reiterated advice to have one's grafts in a dormant state, that I 

 made the experiment one year of having them cut off a month 

 before they were required, and laid in damp sand until the 

 time for grafting ; unfortunately, like some other experimentalists, 

 I started on a large scale, and the result was most disastrous ; 



F 



