The Garden Magazine , July, 1920 
329 
cut on the limb, in the outer bark only, where you want the future 
limb to be. Then lift the bark of the limb by pressing sideways on 
the cut edges with your knife. Avoid touching the green bark under- 
neath. Slip the bud into place from the top, right end up, and cut off 
the leaf stem to half an inch long, if you haven’t done it before. No 
waxing is needed. Just tie the bark down with yarn or raffia. Use 
something red for this if you can, or tie cheap tags to the limbs above 
the buds, to help in finding the buds again, for the further attention 
needed. Examine the work ten days after doing it. The leaf stems 
will be green if the buds are going to grow, and brown if they are going 
to die. The buds will not likely make much growth the first season, 
but they will knit fast to the limb and be ready to grow the next spring. 
At this examination take off the wrapping. The spring following the 
budding, cut off the stock limbs above the growing buds. During the 
first season go over both buds and grafts two or three times and rub 
off the little sprouts that spring up along the stock limbs. It is better 
not to cut the entire heads off trees in one season. Cut a third of them 
off in each of three years. After the third year, the trees, except for the 
trunk and stock limbs, should be entirely composed of wood of the new 
varieties. Where, in grafting, both the scions set in each cleft begin to 
grow, remove one of them, for two grafts will make a fork that may 
split, and will make an ugly tree. — J. R. Mattern, Julian, Pa. 
Suggested /CONSIDERING the inherent possibilities 
Iris of the Iris for the different characters 
Scorecard sought, as much as the apparent factors in the 
individuals used, I would suggest a Breeders’ 
Score Card as follows: 
fGrowth, constitution and habit .... 11 
The Plant 30% < Stalk, poise, freedom of branching. ... 10 
fHeight 9 
Inherent 
Possibilities 30% 30 
( Color 12 
\ Form 10 
The Flower 40% / Size 6 
J Substance 6 
(Texture 6 
100% 100% 
In practice I work from a less scientific point of view than Mr. Bliss 
(See Garden Magazine for Sept., 1919) as I have not yet obtained the 
data on the inherent possibilities of many Iris — knowledge that each 
breeder must work out for himself in order to attain his ideal. That may 
be the reason that 1 give a higher value to height and color than he does; 
and constitution seems to me of less working importance as one with 
poor growth would be discarded, although soil and situation has much 
to do with this character. In crossing seedlings 1 should depend on a 
vigorous plant from the same cross even if the blossom was poorer, for 
the factors desired. I do not know but what I really give more than 
30 per cent, to Inherent Possibilities, for when I make a cross 1 choose 
an Iris that I think will give a step in the direction of the result I want, 
if not the actual flower, before I consider the points one by one, often 
overlooking obvious faults. 
I agree heartily with Mr. Bliss’s suggestion as to the necessity for “a 
list of standard varieties representing the highest degree of excellence 
for each character.” From the following which is my choice 1 have 
purposely omitted my own seedlings, as they are not yet widely known, 
and 1 shall leave out examples of “Constitution, Growth, Habit and 
Freedom of flowering,” as all those that 1 consider good possess these 
qualities. 
Poise of spike — (particularly desirable in a small clump but not 
necessary for a good mass effect). Viola, Alcazar, Mrs. Horace Dar- 
win. 
Height: — Juniata, Caterina, Princess Royal, Nine Wells, Mithras 
(variegata) and Rhein Nixe (amoena) tall in their respective classes. 
Color is wholly a matter of taste, but it must be clear, clean and with 
well defined markings, if any, to be good. 
Form: — There are a number of equally fine types, among them 
Pallida Dalmatica, Edouard Michel, Caterina, Monsignor, White 
Knight. 
Size: — Though popular I do not consider this character appropriate 
in certain types; you could easily have an Iris that would be out of pro- 
portion to the habit of the plant. Well proportioned are Alcazar, 
Lord of June, Sheiford Chieftain, Isoline, Neptune. 
Substance: — Miss Willmott, Pallida Dalmatica, Queen Alexandra. 
A list of favorites of Garden Magazine correspondents would not 
only be interesting but would form a basis for the necessary discard of 
the poorer varieties which must come in time. Why don’t they send 
them in? — Grace Sturtevant, IVellesley Farms, Mass. 
Watering COR size, beauty of shape and bloom, and 
A 1 for delicacy and genuineness of flavor, 
Grapevine I had never seen or tasted such grapes. They 
were only Concords, and were brought into 
our village by an old woman who lived four miles away on the slope of a 
mountain. I questioned her concerning the vine; but she could give 
no reason for the excellence of the grapes. She added that the vine 
had had no fertilizer in fifteen years. 
Being vitally interested in these grapes, I visited the mountain 
home for the purpose of examining the vine. Immediately I dis- 
covered what I believe is the secret of its bearing power. A pretty 
little mountain rivulet ran within ten feet of it. Its water-supply was 
therefore constant and abundant; and I reasoned that any grape so 
situated would thrive. But how was the stream to be supplied to my 
own grapevines in town? 
The water from rains which fell on the roof had been run down by 
piping under the garden walk. Securing two old wooden tubs, 1 
put in the bottom of each a little fertilizer and a mulch that would hold 
the water and feed it to the vines gradually. Then I ran a piece of 
piping from the roof into each tub, sinking the tubs about six inches 
in the ground between each two vines of the small arbor. All the 
water thus collected without further effort on my part was carried to 
the grapes. 
The results were gratifying. The vines almost immediately took 
on a dark-green color, and they were very lusty. Since my experi- 
ment they have borne regularly, prolifically; and, best of all, the grapes 
that they have yielded have taken away all my envy of the old woman 
from the mountain. — A. Rutledge, Mercersburg, Penna. 
Single T WONDER if others know the possibilities 
Petunias for A of single Petunias as household decoration? 
Cut Flowers My seedsman could not send my Rosy Morn 
seeds in time, so I started Countess of Elles- 
mere in flats in a coldframe in January and since the middle of April 
we have had bright, gay decorations for the porch and the house. By 
gathering them before nine o’clock and dipping the stems in boiling hot 
water before standing them in the holders in the shallow bowls they 
last for two or three days. Which reminds me that an elderly gentle- 
man to whom I was showing my Countess of Ellesmere Petunias, said 
that he had seen a lady of that name in Palestine in about ’64 or ’65; 
an Englishwoman considered rather erratic, and then on her way to 
Palmyra with a caravan. Can any one tell me if there is any connec- 
tion between this lady and the flowers? — G. D. Beadel, Leon Co., Fla. 
Transplanting COR two days it rained, saturating the 
Ferns from the * ground and swelling the narrow creek 
Woods that runs back of the house into a miniature 
torrent. An ideal time, 1 thought, to dig 
for Ferns and transplant them in my own back yard. Flower beds I 
had in abundance but 1 determined on a Fern bed along the back 
porch. Taking an old hatchet 1 started out through the orchard past 
the old barn and into the woods that lay across the winding road. 
Here 1 had seen, the summer before, large clumps of Ferns having as 
many as ten and more fronds. The foliage was a dark rich green and 
about three inches wide when matured, and about a foot or so long. 
The ends were not pointed as are those of the variety seen in florists’ 
windows and the leaves were heavy and substantial. It was my plan 
to transplant twenty stocks of these. Digging them was easier than 
getting them to the house. Each clump of roots was formed into a 
sort of ball which gave me a good grip with which to pull, using care 
not to break the new fronds which were just beginning to uncurl. 
When the boys hauled my load to the house the most tedious work was 
yet to be done. 1 dug the bed a foot wide and a foot deep, then made a 
trench the entire length, six inches deep. The Fern clumps were then 
laid down at a distance of about a foot apart and then covered and 
watered. When in the course of a week or so the new fronds began to 
uncurl 1 put on more loose dirt until the bed was at its former level. 
With continual watering these Ferns developed into large healthy plants 
and more than repaid me for my trouble. When we left this lovely 
home to live in a city 1 took several of the clumps with me. They did 
well last summer and then having died down in the fall, developed new 
fronds during the warm days of October! I lifted one of them and 
brought it in the house, thus keeping fresh memories of the delightful 
woods where they first grew, and bringing the springtime closer. — J. R. 
