10 | THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER, 
The Department of Agriculture has for 
many years grown side by side at the dif- 
ferent experimental orchards of Bathurst, 
Wagga, Richmond, and more recently at 
Glen Innes and Cowra, most of the varie- 
ties of apples to be procured in this and 
other States, as also some which have re- 
cently been imported from both England 
and America—all of which varieties are 
being grown and compared, with the defi- 
nite object of determining which apples, 
under a given set of conditions, return the 
best results from a commercial point of 
vicw; and as a variety has been found to 
do well, not only under tie conditions ex- 
isting at the experimental orchard, but in 
private orchards, in which results are com- 
parable, it has been illustrated in 
colors. The series is necessarily not com- 
plete yet, but at any rate the list will not 
be a long one, there being out of the 
nearly 700 varieties under trial and obser- 
vation, possibly not a great many sorts that 
it is commercially worth while to grow on 
a large scale. 
In Tasmania, the aim of the grower is 
to have as few varieties as possible, and in 
the great apple industries of the United 
States and Canada there is the same ten- 
dency. The only reason why so many varie- 
ties may be mentioned in this work is that 
New South Wales possesses so great a 
range of soils and climatic conditions fa- 
vorable to apple-growing, that our growers 
can go further than the orchardists of 
most of the other States in catering for a 
wide range of market requirements. 
THE GRAFT UNION. 
By F. A. Waucu, Massachusetts. 
The author has made a study of the na- 
ture of the union between stock and scion 
in hard-wood grafts. It appears that 
scion and stock do not unite like two parts 
of a broken bone, but remain totally dis- 
tinct and separate. The new wood which 
forms after the graft is made is continuous 
and normally forms in annual unbroken. 
layers like the layers of an ungrafted 
» stem. 
By sectioning a large number of grafts it 
was found that “in spite of the longitud- 
inal continuity of the annual layers, there 
is sometimes, at right angles to them, a 
visible line of demarcation between the 
wood grown from the scion and that 
grown from the stock. The two kinds of 
tissue are sufficiently unlike that the differ- 
ence can be noted with the naked eye. 
Moreover, in some cases there is a distinct 
line which seems to form a boundary be- 
tween the two members.” 
The idea that new kinds of plants can 
be produced by the grafting of divers 
scions and stocks is held to be erroneous. 
“No matter how closely the two kinds of 
cells may lie against one another, their 
_ contents are neyer mingled in the jproduc- 
tion of a new cell. Each new cell is pro- 
duced by the division of some older single 
cell, never by the fusion of two parent 
cells. The two kinds of tissue 
may commingle or lap in together some- 
what along the line of junction, but this 
mixture is only mechanical, not physiologi- 
cal.” The same kind of union and growth 
occurs in grafting by budding as in long- 
scion grafting. 
The graft is not necessarily the weakest 
point in the limb. It has been observed 
that when the wind breaks off branches in 
an old orchard that a majority perhaps of 
the fractures do not occur where the grafts 
have been made, but elsewhere on the 
limb. In the case of defective unions 
caused by some incompatibility of scion 
and stock the graft is a source of weak- 
ness. Defective unions as a rule have not 
been found to be due to faulty technique 
in grafting, but rather to incompatibility 
of stock and scion. 
“In the case of imperfect unions, the 
continuity of the new growth is more or 
less interrupted by the deposition of a. cer- 
tain amount of loose scar tissue such as 
serves in the healing of wounds. These 
conditions make the graft union mechanic- 
ally weak. All degrees of mechanical 
strength may be observed in graft unions, 
ranging from those (a large number) which 
are stronger than the adjacent parts of the 
same stems down to such as are incapable 
of even holding themselves in place.” — 
Washington Experiment Station. Record. 
Vegetable Garden. 
—_o—— 
OPERATIONS FOR JULY. 
By W.S. Campsetu. 
This is the time of midwinter, cool in 
some parts of New South Wales, cold in 
some few places, and mild or even warm in 
others. It will, therefore, be apparent 
that it is practically impossible to write 
one set of directions to apply to the whole 
State, which enjoys such a variety of 
climates; frosts, snow, and ice in some of 
the elevated districts in the beginning of 
May, following, suddenly, quite warm 
weather. Here the growing of tender or 
half-hardy vegetables is a thing of the past, 
and further sowing must await until spring 
or early summer returns. On the other 
hand, in some favored localities in the nor- 
thern coast districts, French beans, toma- 
toes, and potatoes can be grown the year 
round, but such localities are limited. 
Wherever any portion of. the land set 
apart for vegetables may not be required 
during the cold season of the year for crop- 
ping, it had better be dug up roughly, in 
order that as much of the soil as possible 
may be exposed to the weather. This 
should improve it to a considerable extent. 
July 1, 1905 
The present is a good time of the ‘year 
to start the making of vegetable or flower 
gardens, and it would be advisable to per- 
form the preliminary work as thoroughly 
as possible, for such a good chance is not 
likely to occur after the land has once been 
put under crop. Have the land trenched 
2 ft. deep, but avoid bringing up the sub- 
soil to the surface, or there is likely to be 
trouble in store for the gardener, and it 
will take a considerable time, very pro- 
bably, before the undesirable subsoil can 
be worked into a suitable condition for 
either vegetables or flowers. Of course, this 
does not refer to soils which are much. of 
the same character from the surface to 2 or 
3 ft. or more below it. Such fine soils do 
exist in many places in the State, and when 
lying situated in suitable positions for the 
garden they should be made good use of. 
I have frequently seen instances where 
most excellent soil exists on farms close 
up to the residences, of which no use what- 
ever is made for garden purposes, and the 
families enjoy neither vegetables, fruit, nor 
flowers of their own production. 
Should it not be convenient, for some 
reason or other, to hand-trench the garden, 
do the next best thing if possible—plough, 
and then subsoil-plough the land; but no 
machine-work can. come up to hand-work 
for garden purposes. The nearest approach 
to it is with the disc-plough work, but the 
disc-plough is not quite suitable for all 
kinds of soil. 
After the preparation of the land, the 
subsequent work will probably have to be 
confined to hand-work, for when the gar- 
den is properly enclosed the area will be 
too small to admit of horse-work. 
There are numerous handy implements, 
such as wheel hoes, with combinations for 
making furrows, seed-sowers, &c., which 
can easily be obtained. If any such imple- 
ment be used, it will be desirable to make 
the rows of vegetables continuous—for 
instance, instead of having say three or 
four short rows of cabbage have one long 
one where practicable, or, if only one 
short row be sufficient for family require- 
ments, plant or sow something else in the 
same line, and soon. In this manner the 
work of cultivation is straight ahead, and 
there will be fewer turnings. 
Artichoke, Globe.—Suckers or rooted 
plants may be planted out during the 
month, but this work is likely to prove 
most successful if it be postponed until the 
early spring. Plant at least 3 ft. apart ; 
4 or 5 ft. would be, perhaps, better. This 
vegetable is hardly worth the growing, but 
agy some persons like it a plant or two 
might be tried. 
Artichoke, Jerusalem.—This species of 
sunflower is quite another thing to the 
Globe Artichoke, and is a very desirable 
vegetable to grow. When the tubers, 
which are somewhat like potatoes, are in 
proper condition, the leaves and stems 
wither away or die down. The tubers may 
be lifted and stored, or allowed to remain 
in the ground, to be taken up as needed. 
They do not store very well, and are 
liable to decay. Keep enough! tubers in 
the soil for next season’s planting out in 
