Read Ebook: American Pomology. Apples by Warder J A John Aston

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He thinks the result would have been more successful had the blossoms been protected from impregnation by other trees, and recommends that those to be experimented with should be planted at a distance from orchards, so as to avoid this cross-breeding, and to allow of what is called breeding in-and-in. If this were done, he feels confident that "the seedlings would more nearly resemble the parent, and to a certain extent would manifest the tendency to improvement, and that from the earliest ripened fruits, some earlier varieties would be produced, from those latest ripening, later varieties, from those that were inferior and insipid, poor sorts would spring, and that from the very best and most perfect fruits we might expect one in one thousand, or one-tenth of one per cent., to be better than the parent." This diminishes the chance for improvement to a beautifully fine point upon which to hang our hopes of the result of many generations of seedlings occupying more than a lifetime of experiments.

The whole communication referring to these experiments, which are almost the only ones, so far as I know, which have been conducted in this country to any extent, to verify or controvert the Van Mons' theory, is very interesting, but it is easy to perceive that the experimenter, though apparently very fair, and entirely honest, has been fully imbued with the truth and correctness of the proposition of Van Mons, that the first ripened seed of a natural plant was more likely to produce an improved variety, and that this tendency to improvement would ever increase, and be most prominent in the first ripened seeds of successive generations grown from it.

The theory of Van Mons I shall not attempt in this place to controvert, but will simply say that nothing which has yet come under my observation has had a tendency to make me a convert to the avowed views of that great Belgian Pomologist, while, on the contrary, the rumors of his opponents, that he was really attempting to produce crosses from some of the best fruits, as our gardeners have most successfully done in numerous instances, in the beautiful flowers and delicious vegetables of modern horticulture, have always impressed me with a color of probability, and if he were not actually and intentionally impregnating the blossoms with pollen of the better varieties, natural causes, such as the moving currents of air, and the ever active insects, whose special function in many instances appears to be the conveyance of pollen, would necessarily cause an admixture, which, in a promiscuous and crowded collection, like the "school of Van Mons," would at least have an equal chance of producing an improvement in some of the resulting seeds.

RUNNING OUT OF VARIETIES.

It has been a very generally received opinion among intelligent fruit-growers, that any given variety of fruit can have but a limited period of existence, be that longer or shorter. Reasoning from the analogies of animal life this would appear very probable, for it is well known that individuals of different species all have a definite period of life, some quite brief, others quite extended, beyond which they do not survive. But with our modern views of vegetation, though we know that all perennial plants do eventually die and molder away to the dust from whence they were created, and that many trees of our own planting come to an untimely end, while we yet survive to observe their decay, still, we can see no reason why a tree or parts of a tree taken from it, and placed under circumstances favorable to its growth from time to time, may not be sempiternal. Harvey has placed this matter in a correct light, by showing that the true life and history of a tree is in the buds, which are annual, while the tree itself is the connecting link between them and the ground. Any portion of such a compound existence, grafted upon another stock, or planted immediately in the ground itself and established upon its own roots, will produce a new tree like the first, being furnished with supplies of nourishment it may grow indefinitely while retaining all the qualities of the parent stock--if that be healthy and vigorous so will this--indeed new life and vigor often seem to be imparted by a congenial thrifty stock, and a fertile soil, so that there does not appear to be any reason why the variety should ever run out and disappear.

The distinguished Thomas Andrew Knight, President of the London Horticultural Society, was one of the leading advocates of the theory that varieties would necessarily run out and disappear as it were by exhaustion.

Speechly combated the views of Mr. Knight, and says: "It is much to be regretted that this apparently visionary notion of the extinction of certain kinds of apples should have been promulgated by authors of respectability, since the mistake will, for a time at least, be productive of several ill consequences."

Some of the old English varieties that were supposed to be worn out or exhausted, appear to have taken a new lease of life in this country, but we have not yet had a long enough experience to decide this question. Many of the earlier native favorites of the orchard have, for some reason, disappeared from cultivation--whether they have run out, were originally deficient in vigor, or have merely been superseded by more acceptable varieties, does not appear.

Mr. Phillips, in his Companion, states "that in 1819, he observed a great quantity of the Golden Pippin in Covent Garden Market, which were in perfect condition, and was induced to make inquiries respecting the health of the variety, which resulted in satisfactory replies from all quarters, that the trees were recovering from disease, which he thought had been induced by a succession of unpropitious seasons. He cites Mr. Ronald's opinion, that there was then no fear of losing this variety; and Mr. Lee, who thought that the apparent decay of some trees was owing to unfavorable seasons. Mr. Harrison informed him that this variety was very successfully grown on the mountains of the island of Madeira, at an elevation of 3000 feet, and produced abundantly. Also that the variety was quite satisfactory in many parts of England, and concludes that the Golden Pippin only requires the most genial situation, to render it as prolific is formerly."

It is quite probable, as Phillips suggests, that Mr. Knight had watched the trees during unfavorable seasons which prevailed at that period, and as he found the disease increase, he referred it to the old age of the variety, and based his theory to that effect upon partial data.

Mr. Knight's views, though they have taken a strong hold upon the popular mind, have not been confirmed by physiologists. For though the seed would appear to be the proper source whence to derive our new plants, and certainly our new varieties of fruits, many plants have, for an indefinite period, been propagated by layers, shoots or scions, buds, tubers, etc., and that the variety has thus been extended much beyond the period of the life of the parent or original seedling. Strawberries are propagated and multiplied by the runners, potatoes by tubers, the Tiger Lily by bulblets, some onions by proliferous bulbs, sugarcane by planting pieces of the stalk, many grapes by horizontal stems, and many plants by cuttings, for a very great length of time. The grape vine has been continued in this way from the days of the Romans. A slip taken from a willow in Mr. Knight's garden pronounced by him to be dying from old age, was planted in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden many years ago, and is now a vigorous tree, though the original stock has long since gone to decay.

FOOTNOTES:

North American Sylva, Nuttall II, p. 25.

Diary.

History of Knaresborough, p. 216.--Companion of the Orchard, p. 34.

Phillips' Companion, p. 32.

Phillips' Companion, p. 41.

Balfour's Manual.

Balfour's Manual.

Balfour's Manual, p. 284.

Upon the development of a cell in any living tissue, and its power of reproducing other cells, and upon its function of communicating by endosmosis and exosmosis with other like cells, depend all our success in propagating vegetables, whether from seeds or buds, and parts containing these. We must study the circumstances that favor the development of cells, if we would be successful in propagating plants. Each bud being considered an individual, and capable, under favorable circumstances, of taking on a separate existence, we can multiply any individual variety indefinitely, and be sure of having the same qualities of foliage and fruit that we admire in the original, and that we may desire to propagate. This applies equally to a group of buds, as in cuttings, grafts and layers, etc.; but, more wonderful still, there are cells capable of developing buds where none existed before, and even in tissues or parts of a plant where we do not usually find buds--hence we have a mode of propagation of many woody plants, by root cuttings, and by leaves, and even parts of leaves.

Root-cuttings should be made in the spring, just before the usual period of the bursting of the buds in the plant to be propagated. The tendency to develop buds appears to be then most active. Gentle bottom heat, though not essential, is still very desirable, and will conduce to the success of the operation. Some plants are best propagated by this means, and those too, which never naturally produce suckers, may often be successfully grown by sections of the roots. All plants do not equally admit of propagation by division as cuttings, some woody tissues refusing to emit roots under almost any circumstances.

Nobody thinks of propagating the stone fruits, such as the cherry, plum, peach, or apricot, by attempting to plant cuttings, and yet some of these will emit roots very freely, as we may often observe when the shoots or trimmings are used as supports for plants in the green-house. The plum tree is exceedingly apt to form new roots when planted too deeply, and upon this fact depends the success or failure of the finer varieties when worked upon certain varieties of the wild stock. If the young trees are earthed up in the nursery, and set rather deeply in the orchard, they will soon establish a good set of roots of their own, emitted above the junction of the scion and stock, which is very preferable to the imperfect union and consequent enlargement that often results from using uncongenial stocks. The raspberry and blackberry do not grow so well from cuttings of the wood, which is always biennial in this genus, as they do from root-cuttings.

In some parts of the country, peaches are mainly produced, or the favorite varieties are multiplied, by planting the sprouts that come from the base of the trunk of the trees; these have little or no roots when taken off with the mattock, but they soon establish themselves and make good trees, bearing fruit like their parents, in soils and climate that are well adapted to this fruit.

Refined and scientific horticulture has been extensively applied to the multiplication of the grape, which is now produced in immense numbers, from single eyes, or buds. Formerly our vineyards were formed by planting long cuttings at once in the field in the stations to be occupied by the vines, or by setting them first in a nursery, whence they were transplanted to the vineyard, when one or two years old. Only the most refractory kinds, which would not grow readily in the field, or such as were yet rare, were propagated from cuttings, by using the single eye and artificial bottom heat. Now, however, the appliances of our propagators are called upon for the production of grape-vines by the million, and they find it advisable to multiply all the varieties in this manner. The propagation of the grape by using single eyes affords the most beautiful illustration of the subject of the individuality of buds, and though denounced by some as an unnatural, steam-forcing process, it is really an evidence of the advance of horticulture, since every step is supported by a philosophical reason, and the whole process, to be successful, is dependent upon the application to practice of well established scientific truths.

It has already been stated that the first effect of cell-growth upon a cutting, is the production of a callus. This callus may form upon any cut surface, or even where the bark has been abraded. It is the first effort of nature to repair an injury by the reproduction of new parts; it is most generally found at the base of the cutting, but under favorable circumstances, it will be seen also at the upper end of the shoot if this has been placed in contact with the earth. Cuttings will sometimes be set up-side down, when we find the callus upon the smaller end, and roots will be emitted from that portion whence we should have expected to see the branches issue. Upon this fact, and to multiply the chances of living, has been based the French method, as it is called, or that of inserting both ends of the cuttings. The common mode, , is to set the cuttings in a slanting direction in the ground, so placed that the upper eye or bud only shall reach the surface. Formerly there was a preference for long cuttings, and these were often made eighteen inches or more in length. The practice with most of our cultivators has been modified in this particular, and they have reduced the length of the slips to six and eight inches, so as to have in grape wood about three or four eyes. Some have gone still further, and use but two, even for out-door planting of the grape, and some have been very successful when using but a single joint. The Germans have advocated longer cuttings, upon the theory that there was a retroaction in the pith of the internodes and in all the buds of the cutting, upon the lower point, enabling it to push roots more strongly from a long than from a short cutting. This theory has for its support the fact, that there is in such a cutting a larger amount of organizable matter to be developed into the new parts to be produced, and certainly, if neglected, short cuttings will be very apt to suffer from drought, but in practice, it is found that the short cutting plants have better roots, which are near the surface, and even those plants, grown from single eyes, are better burnished than long cuttings produced upon the old plan, which placed the roots deep in the soil.

There are various methods of preparing the single-eye cuttings, some of which are represented in fig. 2.

Among our cultivated fruits there is but a limited number that need to be propagated by cuttings, though, where it becomes necessary, many of them may be grown in this manner, to which procedure there are no serious objections, though there are some of a theoretical nature. The currant and the gooseberry are increased almost exclusively from cuttings, they strike root very readily, and are multiplied to any extent; their seeds are sown only to produce new varieties. The grape is propagated very extensively by cuttings; the slips are often planted in the field and in the stations where the vines are wanted for the vineyard; but some varieties are so unsatisfactory in their results, that other more elaborate and scientific means must be taken for their propagation. Among the larger fruits, those constituting our trees, we do not depend upon cuttings, except in the quince, which is not only grown for its fruit, but is also largely produced as a stock for the dwarfed pear, and is extensively propagated from cuttings. The Paradise apple, a dwarf stock, is multiplied in the same way. Pears and apples may be grown from cuttings, but this plan is not pursued with them to any extent. Those that are root-grafted, or budded very low, especially the pear on quince stocks, will often produce roots if favorably situated, but there is a great difference in varieties, some rarely produce a root, while others are very prone to do it; from observations of this fact, a new phase of dwarf-pear culture has been inaugurated.

SUCKERS.--One of the simplest methods of multiplying varieties consists of increasing and encouraging the suckers thrown up by the roots; these are separated and set out for trees. We have been told by some physiologists that there was an absolute difference in structure between the root and the stem, that they could not be substituted the one for the other; and yet the oft quoted marvel of the tree which was planted upside down, and which produced flowers and leaves from its roots, while its branches emitted fibres, and became true roots, is familiar to every one. Here, as in other cases, our teachers have led us into error by attempting to trace analogy with animal anatomy and physiology, and by directing our attention to the circulation of plants, as though they, like the higher animals, possessed true arterial and venous currents of circulating fluids. The cell circulation is quite a different affair, and can be conducted in either direction, as every gardener knows who has ever layered a plant, or set a cutting upside down. So with the roots--they are but downward extensions of the stem; under ordinary circumstances they have no need for buds, but these may be, and often are developed, when the necessity for their presence arises. Buds do exist on roots, especially upon those that are horizontal and near the surface, and from them freely spring suckers, which are as much parts of the parent tree as its branches, and may be planted with entire certainty of obtaining the same fruit, just as the twigs when used as cuttings, or scions, when grafted, will produce similar results.

Whole orchards are planted, in some sections of the country, with the suckers from old trees; apples, pears, plums, and even peaches, as well as raspberries and blackberries, are multiplied in this primitive way. There are some varieties of apples that have been so propagated for half a century, and extended for hundreds of miles in this way by the pioneer emigrants, without ever having been grafted, until their merits have at length accidentally become known to the Pomological Societies and nurserymen, when the propagation of them by grafting soon supercedes the more primitive method. Sucker trees are objected to upon the grounds that they are not healthy and thrifty, that they do not have good roots. Inherent disease of the parent tree will of course be transmitted with its other peculiarities, but I cannot imagine that this would be any more likely to occur in a sucker than in a layer, or cutting, or graft. As to the roots, they may be more developed upon one side than another in the young tree, and this state of things may continue in the adult; we often observe the same condition in the stumps of the monarchs of our forests, which were never suspected in the day of their glory and pride of having such a fault. But such a condition of roots is not essential to the sucker, which may be made to have as fine a system of lateral roots, and as evenly and regularly distributed as those of a seedling tree. Another objection to this mode of propagation has much truth and some force; that is, that suckers are very apt to produce suckers again. This is particularly the case with the Morello cherry, which is a favorite stock, upon which to work many of the choice varieties. As an offset to this it may be urged, that the small fibrous roots, which are supposed to conduce to early fruitfulness, abound in trees propagated by this means, and this may be the reason why the fruit trees that have been thus multiplied, are very generally remarkable for their precocious fruiting. Some of the apples that have been long increased in this manner, bear so early, and so bountifully, as to prevent them from ever forming very large trees; they often have a stunted appearance, and not infrequently present a peculiar inequality upon the bark, portions being swollen or enlarged like warts--from which, in some cases, it is easy to force out shoots or sprouts; they are indeed true gemmules like those of the old olive trees, and like them might be used for the propagation of the variety; a similar condition, no doubt, exists in the roots, whence the tendency to sucker. The common Morello cherry; the Damson; the Chickasas, and other varieties of plum; the blackberry, and many raspberries, are multiplied almost exclusively in a similar manner.

Quinces are considerably increased by a sort of layering, as the twigs emit roots very freely; they are often bent down, slightly twisted, or not, as the case may be, and covered with mellow soil, when they readily emit roots, become firmly established, and may be set out by themselves, . There is, however, another method of layering, much practiced in the multiplication of the quince; that called propagation by stools. The plants are set in open rows, four feet wide, and three or four feet apart in the rows; they should be so planted as to stand below the general surface, that is in trenches. When cut off at the ground in the spring, they throw up a great number of shoots, and the earth is gradually worked up to these to encourage their rooting, , which is often sufficient for removal the first season; if, on inspection, the roots are not found to be sufficiently large or abundant, the earthing is continued until the autumn of the next year, when they are removed, the stools trimmed of their lower roots, and reset in new trenches. The plants, thus raised from stools, are cut back severely, and are then ready to set out in nursery rows for budding. With the quince, cultivated in this manner, nothing is required but to accumulate the mellow earth about the shoots; but in many plants it is necessary to notch the wood by splitting, or cutting it for an inch or two, , making a tongue that separates from the lower portion of the shoot, and from which the roots are emitted. This slit should be commenced just below a bud, and the knife is drawn upward, cutting halfway through the wood. If commenced at one side instead of at the depending portion, the tongue is more sure to be separated from the stock, to which it might otherwise reunite. To insure rooting, some persons insert a little stick or chip between the separated portions, to prevent a re-union of the parts. The shoot, after being notched, is fastened down, and fine soil or compost is brought about it to encourage the development of roots. Few of the hard wooded fruit trees have been extensively propagated by means of layers; they might be so produced, but it has not been found profitable nor necessary.

A very common opinion prevails that layering exhausts the mother plant, or vine, which is used in this mode of propagating. If properly conducted, there is no reason why this should be; but if the whole top of any plant is bent down and made to take root, and to form independent roots, there can be little or no return from the branches to the original stock to strengthen it. A certain amount of healthy growing wood should always be left in its natural position, and no danger to the plant need be apprehended.

SEEDS.--The most common as well as the most natural mode of multiplying the individual plants of most of our fruit trees, is by sowing the seed; from this source we procure stocks upon which are worked, by budding or grafting, the several varieties we may desire to propagate. As an illustration of this process, I propose to speak of apple seedlings.

The almost universal means of increasing the number of apple trees, is by sowing the seed. This is generally selected and separated from the fresh pomace left on the press in cider-making. The old and slow process of hand-washing has given way, in this age of labor-saving machinery, to more economical methods. The most approved apparatus is constructed upon the principle of separating the seeds from the pulp by means of their greater specific gravity; it is, indeed, much like a gold washer, being a series of boxes or troughs through which a current of water is made to flow; this carries the lighter portions away from the seeds, the contents of the boxes being agitated from time to time. At the close of the process, the clean seed is found in the bottoms of the boxes, whence it is removed and carefully dried, by putting it in an airy place, and stirring it frequently to prevent mildew and fermentation. Well prepared seed is plump and bright, and should feel cold to the hand. When the pips are broken, they should be white and clear within; but the best test of their quality, is to sprout a portion, and count the plants produced by a given number of seeds.

These seedlings furnish the stocks upon which to work the finer varieties of the apple. They are taken up in the autumn with their long clean roots, which are often longer than their tops, the leaves are stripped off, and they are assorted; the larger are packed away in earth or saw-dust in the grafting department, or heeled-in out of doors, and covered in such a way as to be accessible at any time they may be needed during the winter. The smaller stocks are heeled-in for spring planting in nursery rows for budding, or they may be left in the original rows for another year's growth as seedlings. If the plants have been well grown and not too thick, so that the majority are of sufficient size, it will be better to take them all up at once and assort them as just indicated, otherwise the largest only may be drawn separately when the ground is soft with autumnal rains, leaving the smaller seedlings for another year's growth. In assorting and selling the stocks, nurserymen make about three classes. The very largest, as thick as a lead-pencil, are called extra, or two-year old, and command a higher price. The next size, called 1st class stocks, are large enough for co-aptation to the average scions, and long enough to make two cuts each for grafting; and those that fall below this requisition are considered second class, and are either thrown aside or set out for budding, and for stock or collar-grafting in the rows.

We say, as a general rule, that stone fruits must be grafted upon stone fruits, those bearing seeds, upon seed fruit; but there are limits even here which confine us upon one hand, and give us more latitude upon the other. Thus the cherry may be worked upon the wild cherry but it forms a very poor union; the pear will grow upon the thorn, which has a very different seed, but the union is very imperfect and the tree is short-lived; the apple would appear to be much nearer of kin, since it belongs to the same genus, but though the pear will grow vigorously upon this stock, it is no more permanent than upon the thorn: either of them will answer when grafted low, or in the root, to start the cutting, as the scion may then be considered, and to sustain it until it shall have supplied itself with roots. In top-grafting the pear upon a tree of either species, it is found essential to success, and it conduces to the greater durability of the tree, for some branches of the original stock to be left intact to secure the circulation of the trunk, as the union of the dissimilar cells is so imperfect that it does not furnish sufficient vent for the sap. In the case of the cherry we find that the varieties appear to have a greater affinity for those of their own race; thus the Dukes and Morellos do well when grafted upon the Morello stocks, whereas the Hearts and Bigarreau sorts do not make a good union upon these stocks, but prefer the Mazzard, which has a freer growth more like their own. Most varieties will do well upon the Mahaleb stock, which is used as a means of dwarfing this fruit, though not a dwarf. Upon the wild cherry, which belongs to quite a different section of the genus, the cultivated varieties will grow, but they form a very imperfect union.

We must never forget that in grafting, we are confined to very narrow limits. Our scion must be of a similar nature with the stock, each must have cells of a similar character, capable of transmitting their nutritious fluids from one to the other. We must recollect likewise, that the parts must be so co-apted that the cells of wood growth shall be brought into as close connection as possible, in both scion and stock; these cells are found in the layer, called the cambium, which is between the wood and the bark. The crude sap from below will often pass from cell to cell, when the elaborated sap of the cells in the scion is wholly unfitted for the formation of wood cells in the stock below it; of course the union in such a case must be very imperfect, and the product of such a grafting will be subject to accident, and will be short-lived, though the result in fruit, while the union continues, may be very precocious, abundant, and of superior flavor.

Natural grafting may often be observed by the student of nature when wandering among his favorites of the sylvan shades. There can be no doubt that the first hint was thus communicated to the early gardeners. In nature we always find the grafting to be inarching, or grafting by approach; two limbs or even two trees approximating closely, have abraded one another, and have afterward united their tissues most firmly together. This is generally a union of two trees of the same variety or species; but such is not always the case; sometimes trees of very dissimilar natures unite in this manner, but when we examine them we find only a dove-tailing, only a mechanical union, but no vital action subsists between them. The ancients give us some fancy sketches of the unions by grafting of very dissimilar trees, and some moderns who have no higher claim to poetry than their romancing, tell us that we may graft the peach upon the Willow and Buttonwood, and form other equally impossible unions.

The different methods of performing the operation of grafting vary with the character and size, and condition of the stocks to be worked; thus we have splice grafting, whip, cleft, saddle, and side grafting with modifications, and also grafting by approach, which is generally called inarching--though sometimes also practiced where we desire to renew the roots of a tree that are unhealthy, or to restore those that have been removed by accident or by the erosion of some rodent animals.

SPLICE GRAFTING is the simplest process, and is applicable only where the size of the stock and of the scion correspond pretty nearly; the two are cut with a sloping curve, each of which being made at the same angle, will coincide with the other when they are applied together, as represented in the engraving, fig. 7.

A modification of this grafting by approach, is, however, sometimes of great service, where we have a valuable tree that has suffered from disease in the roots, or from injury to them. It consists in planting some thrifty young stocks, with good roots, about the base of the tree, after having prepared the ground by thorough digging, and by the addition of good soil if necessary. These stocks are then inserted upwards into the healthy portion of the trunk, by the process of side grafting reversed or inverted, or by the usual method of inarching.

RING GRAFTING OR BARK GRAFTING is not much used, and in small stocks it is rather a kind of budding, for then a ring of bark is removed at the proper season of year, generally about midsummer, and it is replaced by a similar ring of bark from a shoot of the same size, taken from a tree of the variety to be propagated; this ring of bark must be furnished with a healthy bud. This method has little to recommend it, and can only be applied when both the stock and the scion are in a growing condition, so that the bark will run freely; care also must be exercised to avoid injuring the eye of the bud, in peeling off the ring. A modification of bark grafting may be applied with great advantage, however, to an old tree, that has met with an injury to a portion of its bark. The injured part should be pared smoothly to the sound bark and wood. This may be done with a sloping cut, or the edge may be made abrupt and square with a chisel and mallet; a piece of fresh wood and bark is then to be cut from a healthy tree and fitted precisely to the fresh wound, and secured in its place with bandages, and grafting clay or wax is then applied, thus making what the surgeons would call a sort of taliacotian operation. Instead of a single piece of wood and bark, a number of young shoots may be used to make the communication complete; these are set close together and secured in the usual manner; see fig. 15.

RE-GRAFTING OLD ORCHARDS.--Old orchards of inferior fruit may be entirely re-made and re-formed by grafting the limbs with such varieties as we may desire. A new life is by this process often infused into the trees, which is due to the very severe pruning which the trees then receive; they are consequently soon covered with a vigorous growth of young healthy wood, which replaces the decrepid and often decaying spray that accumulates in an old orchard, and the fruit produced for several years by the new growth is not only more valuable in kind, according to the judgment used in the selection of grafts, but it is more fair, smooth and healthy, and of better size than that which was previously furnished by the trees. Certain varieties are brought at once into bearing when thus top-grafted, which would have been long in developing their fruitful condition if planted as nursery trees. Others are always better and finer when so worked, than on young trees. Some of the finest specimens of the Northern Spy apple, exhibited at the fairs, have been produced by grafts inserted into the terminal branches of old bearing trees. There is a theory held by some orchardists, that the further the junction of the graft with the stock is removed from the root, the better will be the fruit. This, however, is not well supported, and the circumstance, when observed, is probably dependent upon other causes.

GRAFTING IN THE NURSERY is either done at or near the collar of the stock, or it is performed in-doors upon the roots or sections of roots of young stocks. The latter may be first described, as it constitutes the most extensive means of multiplying fruit trees. It is a sort of machinery, with division of labor, and appliances, that enable the operators to turn out immense numbers. Machinery has indeed been applied to the business; we have grafting apparatus to facilitate the work. The Minkler machine consists of a frame or gauge which regulates the angle of the slope, which is cut with a broad chisel that reduces the roots and scions to a condition for putting them together; by its use an immense number of grafts can be cut, and another hand binds them together with the waxed thread, without any tie. Mr. Robey's machine consists of a complicated shears to cut the slope and tongue at one operation, preparing the pieces for whip grafting. Mr. S.S. Jackson, of Cincinnati, has also invented an apparatus for this purpose, which proves to be very useful.

ROOT GRAFTING.--The methods of performing the operation vary somewhat, but all agree in the object to be attained: the co-aptation of the scion with a piece of root. Some grafters use only the upper portion of the root, thinking the original collar of the seedling stock the only point at which the most perfect and successful union between the a?rial and terrestrial portions of trees should or can be effected--theoretically this may be very well, but the practice constantly pursued, in myriads of cases, abundantly proves that the grafting need not be restricted to this part, and that a perfect union may be effected at any point of the root, and that this may even be inverted. The very common practice has been to take two or more cuts from the root, when it is of sufficient size and length; and though some of our best propagators restrict themselves to two cuts from each, others, who have experimented carefully, insist that the third section will average as well as the others. A lot of trees, worked especially for a test in this matter, gave the following results.

In 1859 an average lot of roots and scions, about fifty in each lot, were treated as follows, White Pippin and Willow-leaf being used as scions:--

White Pippin--No. 1, being on the first cut of the root, had made a fair growth.

No. 2, being on the second cut, were quite as good or better.

No. 3, being on the third cut, were not quite so good as the others, the ground being partially shaded by a large tree.

Another, of Willow-leaf--No. 1, on the 3d cut of root, very good growth.

No. 2, on very slender roots, nearly as good.

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