the stock; it is not often needed in the culture of our orchard fruits, but may be here described. The stock upon which we wish to graft the scion, must be planted near the variety or species to be increased. A small twig of the latter, which can be brought close to the stock, is selected for the operation; a slice of bark and wood is then removed from the twig, and another of equal size from the stock, so managed, that these cut surfaces can be brought together and secured in that position until they have united, after which the twig, that has been used as a scion, is cut from its parent tree, and the top of the stock is carefully reduced until the scion has sufficiently developed itself to act as the top of the ingrafted tree, which may afterward be transplanted to its proper station.
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.
Fig. 15.—BARK GRAFTING,
TO REPAIR AN INJURED TREE.
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.
In renewing an old orchard by grafting its head, it will not be a good plan to attempt the whole tree at once; the pruning would be too severe, and would be followed by a profusion of succulent shoots breaking out from the large branches, such as are called water-sprouts. Those who have practiced most, prefer at first, to remove about one-third of the limbs for grafting, and those should be selected at the top of the tree. The new growth thus has an open field for its development, and the lower limbs will be invigorated, while they tend also to preserve the equilibrium of the tree in a double sense, physically and physiologically. The next year another third of the limbs may be grafted, and the remainder the year following, as practiced by Mr. Geo. Olmstead, of Connecticut, who, on the sixth year from the first grafting, harvested 28-½ bushels of choice apples from a single tree that was 75 years old, and which before only produced inferior fruit. J.J. Thomas recommends, "to give a well-shaped head to such newly formed trees, and to prevent the branches from shooting upward in a close body near the centre of the tree; that the old horizontal boughs should be allowed to extend to a distance in each direction, while the upright ones should be lopped;" see fig. 16. The same writer also advises, "instead of cutting off large branches and grafting them at once, it is better to prune the top in part, which will cause an emission of vigorous shoots. These are then budded, or grafted. * * * And as the grafts gradually extend by growth, the remainder of the top may, by successive excisions, be entirely removed."
Fig. 16.—RENEWAL OF THE TOP OF AN OLD TREE.
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 aërial 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.
No. 3, only 1 inch of root to 1 inch of scion; not so good growth nor so good a strike, but shaded by a tree.
No.
