Cutting and preserving Scions.—Mature shoots of the previous year's growth are best. Those of the year before will also do. They may be cut at any time from November to time of setting. Perhaps the month of February is best. They may be well preserved in moist sawdust in tight boxes. The more there are together the better they will keep. They keep better by being cut a little below the beginning of the last year's growth, but it is more injurious to the tree. They may be kept well in fine sand, moist and cool. Too much moisture is always injurious. Put the lower ends in shallow water, and they will look very fine, but not one of them will live. Scions cut in the fall and buried six inches deep in yellow loam or fine sand, will keep well till next spring. There are several methods of grafting only two of which deserve particular attention. These are cleft-grafting and tongue or splice grafting, see figures.
Cleft-Grafting.
Tongue-Grafting.
Cleft-Grafting is performed in most cases, when scions are grafted upon stocks much larger than themselves. It is too well known to need particular description. Tools should be sharp, and it should be performed before the bark slips so easily as to be started by splitting the stock. It endangers the growth of the scions. The requisite to success in all grafting, is to have some point of actual contact, between the inside barks of both the scion and the stock. This is more certainly secured by causing the scion to stand at a slight angle with the stock.
Tongue-Grafting is generally used in grafting on small stocks—seedlings or roots. With a sharp knife, cut off the scion slanting down, and the stock slanting up, split each in the centre, and push one in to the other until the barks meet, and wind with thick paper or thin muslin, with grafting wax on one side. This is generally used in root-grafting. The question of root-grafting has excited considerable discussion recently. Many suppose it to produce unhealthy trees, and that retaining the variety is less certain than by other modes. Root-grafting is a cheap and rapid means of multiplying trees, and hence is greatly prized by nursery men. Practical cultivators of Illinois have assured us, that it is impossible to produce good Rhode Island greenings in that state, by root-grafting—that they will not produce the same variety. We see no principle upon which they should fail, but will not undertake to settle this important question. For ourselves we prefer to use one whole stock for each tree, cutting it off at the ground and grafting there.
Grafting Composition or Wax.—One part beef's tallow, two parts beeswax, and four parts rosin, make the best. Harder or softer, it is liable to be injured by the weather. Warm weather will melt it, and cold will crack it. Melt these together and pour them into cold water, and pull and work as shoemaker's wax. When using, it is to be kept in cool or warm water, as the weather may demand. In its application, it is to be pressed closely over all the wound made by sawing and splitting the limb, and close around the scions, so as to exclude air and water. Clay is often used for grafting, but is not equal to wax. You can use grafting tools, invented especially for the purpose, or a common saw, mallet, knife, and wedge.
GRAPES.
Those cultivated so extensively in Europe were natives of Persia—showing that they may be acclimated far from their native home. Foreign grapes are not suitable for out-door culture in this country, except a very few varieties, which do well in the Southern states. The native grapes of this country have produced some excellent varieties, which are now in general cultivation. Others are beginning to attract notice, and seedlings will probably multiply rapidly, and great improvements in our native grapes may be expected. The subject of grape-culture deserves greatly-increased attention. To all palates the grape is delicious; it is not only one of the most palatable articles of diet, but is more highly medicinal than any other fruit. It is the natural source of pure wine. Pure wine made of grapes is only to be procured, in this country, by domestic manufacture. Probably not one out of a thousand gallons of imported wines, sold as pure, contains a drop of the juice of the grape;—they are manufactured of poisonous drugs and ardent spirits—generally common whiskey. A French chemist discovered a method of imitating fermented liquor without fermentation, and distilled spirits without distillation. His process has been published in this country in book form, and by subscription; and while those books are unknown in the bookstores, they are generally possessed by prominent liquor dealers;—and the practice of those secret arts is terribly dangerous to the community. Antecedent to this chemical manufacture of poisonous liquors, such a disease as delirium tremens was unknown. Thus the Frenchman's discovery filled the liquor-sellers' pockets with cash, and the land with mourning, over frequent deaths by a disease, the horror of which is equalled only by hydrophobia. In self-defence, all should give up the use of everything purporting to be imported wines or liquors. Wine should not be used as a common beverage by the healthy. The best medical authority in the world has pronounced it absolutely injurious. But in many cases of sickness, especially in convalescence from fevers, it is one of the very best articles that can be used; hence, a pure article, of domestic manufacture, should be accessible to all the sick. (See our article on "Wine.") The luxury of good grapes can be enjoyed by every family in the land who have a yard twenty feet square. In the cities, almost every house may have a grapevine or two where nothing else would grow. Allow a vine to run up trellis-work in the rear of the house, and over the roof of a wing, or rear-part, raised two feet above the roof, supported by a rack. In such situations they will bear better than elsewhere, will be out of the way, and decidedly ornamental. In such small yards, from five to twenty-five bushels have often grown in a season. Some climates and soils are much better suited to grape-culture than others. But we have varieties that will flourish wherever Indian corn will mature.