79 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, November 8, 1859. 
only, the press of side-shoots from the bottom fills up 
every inch of space ; there they strive with each other, as 
it were, to rise higher, and so to gain more light. As 
soon as they begin to bloom they are looked over every 
day : the bad and the second and third-rate ones are 
pulled up, and the mass of side-shoots of the good ones is 
made into cuttings—not by cutting the side-shoots clean 
off, but by stopping them down to the second or third 
joint. Soon after that the spurs left on the main leader 
will break out again ; and as soon as they are long enough 
there is a second crop of cuttings, and a third crop some¬ 
times. The last crop is left till August; then every side- 
shoot, all the way up to the flower-stalk, is cut clean off 
and made into cuttings, leaving the leader quite bare up 
to the flower. The bare stems make the standards ; and 
they have no power to make any more side-shoot3 in time 
to come. But see now how this plan operated against me 
in the frost. The tops which got frost-bitten, being the 
only parts which could make a fresh growth, are now as 
bare as fiddlesticks ; and, of course, must die by inches 
if they are not cared for till February or March, when 
new heads could be put upon them by grafting. 
By the way, grafting Geraniums is as easily done as 
grafting Apples after all, and as sure of success, but 
they will not graft freely upon the succulent or soft parts, 
or with the graft in a soft state, but get up stocks 
hard as fiddlesticks, and grafts like the old-fashioned 
cuttings—that is to say, with a joint of hard or old wood 
at the bottom, and there need be no fear or fuss about 
the grafting from February to August. Cut the stock 
right across and slit it down the centre, make the hard 
joint of the graft into a wedge shape, stick it down in the 
centre of the stock, and tie with anything soft—worsted 
is best, no clay, or moss, or anything is needed besides; 
but mind and cut off all the leaves from the graft, if it 
is grafted out of doors, like an Apple tree. In-doors, a 
few leaves on the top of the graft can be kept, like those 
on cuttings, from flagging till the union secures the neces¬ 
sary flow of sap, and all is right. 
Then, the only secret in grafting Geraniums was to 
make sure of hard wood in the stock, and the like in the 
bottom of the graft—at least, out of doors, where alone 
I have done it successfully this last season. But with 
in-door grafting, in a stove or vinery, the grafts, perhaps, 
need not be so ripe as is essential in the open air—at least, 
I think not. Side grafting, or slit grafting, or saddle 
grafting, is not so sure with them as split grafting down 
the centre of the stock, for I gave them all a fair trial. 
Herbaceous grafting, as it is called, when the soft top 
shoot of a woody plant is to be the graft, is also best 
and safest with a slit down the centre of the stock. 
The young wood of Bhododendrons and Azaleas, when 
a week or ten dav3 old, will graft as freely as possible 
upon young shoots a little older than the grafts, if the 
tops are cut off and then split down the centre to receive 
a wedge-ended young succulent graft. 
How, to have a ribbon-row of most flourishing Golden 
Chains, have them grafted in February and March in the 
propagating-house; but, in the name of science, let us 
have no suckers as with the Hose-stocks. Baron Hug el, 
two years old from cuttings, made on purpose to graft 
without suckers, is the best Geranium that I know of 
for stocks to the Golden Chain. Six inches from the 
ground is high enough to graft that celebrated rival, but 
two inches high would do ; and the reason for grafting is 
to get free, vigorous growth, and to be able to keep the 
plants in winter as easily as any other. Depend upon it, 
we must all take to grafting some one or other of the 
shy-growing kinds, and more particularly the very dwarf 
variegated ones, and some of the plain-leaved Minimums, 
like the green Bandy; and, to do so successfully, all the 
bottom eyes must be picked out of the cuttings when 
they are made for stocks, and the side-shoots that will 
be made in the next growth must be stopped at two or 
three joints from the centre shoot, to the middle or 
end of August, and then to be cut clean off. The rea¬ 
sons for stopping them are two in number—the first, to 
allow the stock to lengthen up without a rival; the 
second, in order to have so many more leaves on the 
spurs to strengthen the body of the stock. But there is 
only one reason for cutting off all these side-shoots so 
early as the end of August, and that is to give a sufficient 
time for the wounds to heal or harden before the end of 
that growing season. 
In a few more years the proper chapters for wintering 
Geraniums will embrace grafting as much as the sureties 
against frost, damp, and danger. I am, therefore, within 
the statute as clearly as if these chapters and this graft¬ 
ing had been regularly issued every season for the last 
twenty years. Some may not be aware that Baron Hugel 
will grow as large, or larger, than ever Tom Thumb did; 
but the first two plants of it we had to the Experimental 
were each of them five feet across, and I have seen it clear 
six feet from tip to tip. Yet from March or April-struck 
cuttings you can have a bed of it not more than six 
inches high the whole season. Then, if the Golden Chain 
will take on it freely, its own nature is more near to the 
nature of the Golden Chain than that of any other 
Geranium ; therefore, it must be the best stock for it. 
Age and forcing in winter, or all the winter, were the 
cause of the size of six feet in the big Barons referred to. 
A respectable old age, and a few successive winters of 
forcing, from October to May, would run up most of the 
dwarf variegated Geraniums into Tom Thumb size ; and 
young Baron Hugels, from last July cuttings, if now 
put separately into 60-pt>ts, and on a high shelf in the 
stove up near the glass, would run up so as to make good 
stocks by bedding-out time, or sooner, and none of the 
eyes need be picked out tiil then. Also, when the head 
is cut off for grafting, cut to above an eye or a side-shoot, 
and leave it to start or to draw up the sap more freely to 
the graft, and when the graft has “taken,” cut that 
channel from the system; but cut off' all such channels 
lower down at the time you do the grafting, and may 
good luck attend the very first trial. 
But about the first, or last frost, the Grapes, and the 
Pomological. Captain Hopkins’s Black Hamburghs were 
by far the best out-of-door Grapes they had ever seen or 
tasted. His best bunch when gathered was a pound and 
three-quarters, and after thinning out fly-bitten and 
damaged berries, it was lib. 6ozs., and two more 
bunches nearly as good,—every berry of them was as 
good as orchard-house Grapes. But there was one small 
black Grape there, from some one, which everyone ought 
to have to scent the dessert. I knew it twenty years 
since, and could smell it, if it were in the same house. 
The scent is between the Hautbois Strawberry and the 
best Bergamot Pear. We must hunt*up the transactions 
of the British Pomological Society for it. D. Beaton. 
HOW TO FARM TWO ACRES AND MAKE 
THE MOST OF THEM. 
(Continued from page 51.) 
FURTHER PARTICULARS ON THE SECOND YEAR’S CROPPING. 
The Clover being the most important crop this season 
demands most attention ; and, as we have observed, it is 
one of those crops which do not like to be repeated on 
the same land again for at least six or eight years, other¬ 
wise the success is very uncertain ; and as nothing else 
furnishes so large an amount of nourishment when grown 
on stiff ground, it is by all means advisable to encourage 
it in every possible way. Assuming, therefore, that it 
has yielded three crops for cutting, or it may be two 
crops, and the remainder eaten off, the plants remaining 
still showing vigorous, I would advise in the autumn a 
little lime thrown over the plot: this tends to check, if 
not kill, that grub which so often destroys the plant in 
early spring. This dressing, however, must not be given 
