A Talk About Grape Grafting 
I ha\ e had much experience in grafting fruit trees, 
and but little in grafting grapevines. Will you explain 
the following experience, and give suggestions that may 
help me? On Feb. 25 last year I grafted six five-year- 
old grapevines growing in. garden. I used cleft -graft- 
below surface of ground, used no wax, and wrapped each 
with calico bandage. Grafts all grew, but were discour- 
agingly slow in starting. The owner dug up one of the 
grafted vines last Fall to reset it in another place. 
To his surprise and mine he found that graft (scion) 
had never united with the stock. The stock and its 
roots were dead, scion was self-rooted, and thus grew. 
Why this strange behavior? The owner of these vines 
has asked me to graft some more vines for him this 
Spring. If there is any improvement on my previous 
grafting for him that I can do I wish to know it, and 
do a better job. R. E. E. 
Pulaski, Va. 
I T is of course impossible at this distance to tell 
accurately just why the vineyard cleft-gi-afts 
failed in the above instance. Several years’ experi¬ 
ence in this has taught us many lessons. It is now 
known that grape varieties exhibit a marked prefer- 
7fie RURAL NEW-YORKER 
3-in. plunger and a 5-in. stroke would give the de¬ 
sired amount. 
LENGTH OF LINE A FACTOR.—Another factor 
influencing the size of the pump is the length of the 
sprinkling lines. Overhead lines with the 4-ft. spac¬ 
ing and No. 1 nozzles require 10 gallons per minute 
for lines 200 ft. long, so if longer lines than this are 
used a larger pump would be necessary. The size of 
main from pump to the field is governed by the 
length. A pump supplying 10 gallons per minute 
with a 1-in. main would lose over 3 lbs. on each 100 
ft. in length. With a H/i-in. main the loss would be 
1 lb., with a 1%-in., y 2 lb., and with a 2-in., y s lb. 
This loss on the main would not interfere with the 
effectiveness of the irrigation, as it would only add 
to the load on the engine and pump. This, however, 
is not the case if the sprinkling line is too small, as 
in this case the pressure is decreased down the line 
if the pipe is too small, resulting in an uneven dis¬ 
tribution of water. With the usual nozzle and spac- 
ence for certain stocks. The scions of certain of ing. lines of 150 ft. in length may be made up en¬ 
tirely of %-in pipe; 250 ft. long, half 1 in. and half 
34-in. pipe is used. Longer lines require larger pipe 
to start with. 
WARM OR COLD WATER—We have not found 
any difference in results between cold and warm 
water in regular irrigation work, since the fine 
them will knit well with a stock on which other 
scion varieties would fail. This character is termed 
affinity or congeniality. The degree of affinity for 
certain stocks is known for but few American va¬ 
rieties, hence it becomes largely a cut-and-try pro¬ 
cess. 
iWe have found in this latitude (Western New sprays reach the plant within a few degrees of the 
York) that there are two periods in 
the Spring when vineyard cleft-graft¬ 
ing may be successfully done when the 
above condition of affinity is met. The 
first period is very early in the Spring, 
before growth activity begins, and the 
second after the active flow of sap has 
ceased. The writer prefers the latter 
period. 
Assuming that the cleft has been 
well made 2 in. or thereabouts below 
the soil level, and the scions smoothly 
beveled and placed so that they are 
held tightly, the next part of the pro¬ 
cess is to tie them securely in place. 
For this purpose strong twine is pre¬ 
ferred to all else. The less air exclud¬ 
ed from the joined parts the better will 
be the union. The calico binding may 
have been the cause of failure in the 
above case. 
A mound of earth is now made so 
that the top bud of the scion is just 
covered with loose soil. One of the big¬ 
gest factors that contribute to failures 
in vineyard grafting is excessive mois¬ 
ture about point of contact between 
stock and scion. Callousing tissue will 
not form in the presence of excessive 
moisture, hence it is advisable, espe¬ 
cially with heavy soils, to remove the 
mound of earth a few times during the 
season, that the soil may dry out in the 
region of the graft. After it is dried 
the mound is then made again. At the 
time the mound is taken away any 
roots growing from the scions should be cut off 
cleanly, close to the scion, and likewise any suckers 
arising from the stock should be broken off. 
It is not unusual to find the scions have started 
from roots thrown out by them, even though there 
be a partial union formed. But in proportion as the 
scions are allowed to grow from their own roots will 
the union of stock and scion be that much poorer. 
Bench-grafted grape roots often fail to grow from 
the stock, but will make a very satisfactory growth 
from the scion roots. f. e. gladwin. 
257 
plowed and fitted. It will pay to use lime at seed¬ 
ing, as such meadow land is usually sour. The 
other plan is to plow in Spring and seed some 
broadcast crop that will smother out some of the 
weeds and add considerable organic matter. A crop 
often used for this purpose is a mixture of oats and 
Canadian peas seeded together—three bushels of 
oats and one of peas to the acre. In July this crop 
is plowed under. Then two plans are open. One is 
to keep the field, after this plowing, thoroughly har¬ 
rowed to kill out weeds and grass, so that in Sep¬ 
tember the surface will be in fine condition for the 
seeding. The other plan is to drill in Soy beans after 
plowing under the oats and peas. Give them good 
culture until September, and then plow the crop un¬ 
der and seed to grass. Most of such soils need lime. 
If corn is to be planted, we would hold the lime until 
grass seeding. If oats and peas are to be used, we 
should put on the lime with that crop. As to which 
is the better plan, that will depend on circumstances. 
There is less labor with the corn crop, and the land 
will be cleaner. On the other hand, the oats and 
peas and Soy beans will leave the soil in better con¬ 
dition ; the seeding will last longer. 
The “commercial inoculation” of Soy beans means 
that the bacteria which work on the roots of the 
plants are cultivated or grown in the laboratory and 
put in bottles along with some substance needed to 
keep them alive and feed them. The 
contents of the bottle may be dis¬ 
solved and sprinkled over the seeds, 
thus adding the bacteria. 
ELBERT S. BRIGHAM 
Commissioner of Agriculture of the State of Vermont, and a Long-time Friend 
and Contributor to The R. N.-Y. 
Notes on Overhead Irrigation 
T ANKS AND PUMPS.—I have just read your in¬ 
quiry, from A. M. B., about irrigation, page 82. 
First, I would say that the height of a tank has 
nothing to do with the area to be irrigated, this be¬ 
ing governed entirely by the size of the pump. Sec¬ 
ond, in overhead irrigation a tank is a useless ex¬ 
pense, for by pumping direct any pressure desired 
may be had, and the storage from an ordinary tank 
is so soon exhausted that it adds nothing to the 
value of an installation. There are exceptions, of 
course, as where the area to be irrigated is quite 
small, and where the water is obtained from a ram 
or windmill. One acre of land requires, on an aver¬ 
age, 6.000 gallons per day. The size of the pump 
necessax-y to irrigate one acre would be one with a 
capacity of about 10 gallons per minute. A double¬ 
acting plunger pump is the type generally used for 
small installations, and a pump of this kind with a 
temperature of the air. Cold well water at a tem¬ 
perature of 56° would reach the plants as warm as 
an ordinary rain when applied with the thermom¬ 
eter at 70°. Warm water is essential when used as 
a protection against frost. Water applied at a tem¬ 
perature of 70° will liaise the air temperature about 
6° if there is not too much wind blowing. 
AN IMPORTANT POINT.—In overhead irriga¬ 
tion one very important point not generally under¬ 
stood is that the size of the outlet of the nozzle must 
be governed by the soil to be irrigated. In heavy 
soils the water must be applied more slowly than in 
lighter, or the soil will be puddled and bad condi¬ 
tions follow. c. w. skinner. 
New Jersey. 
Reseeding an Old Meadow 
I have four acres of meadow land, a little heavy, that 
has been rented for the last eight years. I expect to 
seed it in the Fall. How would you suggest handling 
it until then in order to build up the soil and kill off the 
weeds? It is somewhat acid. Would you lime it in the 
Spring or Fall? Can Soy beans be plowed under to 
good advantage, and will they supply more nitrogen that 
way? What is commercial inoculation, of Soy beans, 
spoken of on page 173? R. H. B. 
Massachusetts. 
f I MIERE are two general plans for handling such 
a field for re-seeding. One is to plow early and 
plant some very early variety of corn in hills—giv¬ 
ing good culture both ways and cutting weeds out 
with the hoe. This cleans the land as a good prepa¬ 
ration for seeding. The corn is cut in early Septem¬ 
ber and removed from the field. The land is well 
Consider the Nut Growing 
Proposition 
While I heartily agree with the most 
of Mr. Hershey’s statements in his in¬ 
teresting article of “Orcharding of the 
Future,” yet I must certainly take 
exception to one of his statements—at 
least as regards nut culture in this sec¬ 
tion. He says the grower of a nut 
gi-ove is free from the pests which 
work havoc with our fruit trees. If 
Mr. Hershey finds this to be a fact, 
then all I can say is that his section 
of the country is wonderfully favored 
for nut culture, for, with us, the nut 
tree has from three to five times as 
many pests as the fruit tree. As we 
have but little, or no real knowledge 
in regard to their control, we feel com¬ 
paratively helpless in this particular 
field. 
As he says, “the nut tree requires 
plenty of food in the form Of manure 
mulch.” But this treatment I have 
/found brings in the white grub and 
May beetle literally by the thousands. 
Last year this pest alone kept my trees 
'denuded from May until nearly the 
second week in July — practically 
through the normal growing season of 
the nut tree. Shagbarks and shellbarks gave an 
avei’age growth of about eight inches for the sea¬ 
son instead of 20 or more. The tough old beetles 
were not affected by a strong arsenical spray, but 
I found a heavy application of salt about a few of 
the trees killed them, and thus fax', I have noted 
no injury to the ti’ees. But I shall employ this 
method of extermination very carefully until I know 
more about it. And later came the rose chafer and 
the white caterpillar to continue the destructive 
work. And so serious was the sum total of injury— 
the severe frost of late April also having done some 
harm—that there was no fruiting even with trees 
that had been two or three years in bearing. 
I consider the care of a nut grove an infinitely 
more difficult proposition than that of a fruit 
orchard, but, as Mr. Hershey says, the field offers a 
greater chance of success for the reason that it is 
only in its infancy, while to my thinking the apple 
orchard is nearly, if not quite, in its dotage. 
Such articles as Mr. Hershey’s—fi*om the pens of 
practical men, not popular magazine writers—ai*e 
of gxeat value at this px - esent time. For they call 
the attention of would-be back-to-the-landers, and 
established orehardists themselves, to the fact that 
apple growing is already overdone, and countless 
thousands more trees coming into bearing every 
year. So those men who will look ahead a little and 
leave the old beaten trail somewhat by some sort 
of specializing will be better able to weather the 
gale and hold out when those disastrous years of 
reconstruction in apple culture begin to arrive. 
