This section is from "The Horticulturist, And Journal Of Rural Art And Rural Taste", by P. Barry, A. J. Downing, J. Jay Smith, Peter B. Mead, F. W. Woodward, Henry T. Williams. Also available from Amazon: Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste.
By the last mail I received The Gardeners' Monthly for the present month, (November,) and while reading it yesterday I found the following on page 347, in the proceedings of the "Grape-Growers' Convention, at Lancaster, Pa".
"Mr. Miller grafts his vines above ground, by the usual mode of tongue-grafting, after the sap has flowed in the spring: it can not be done successfully other-wise".
If I were disposed to be dogmatic I would say: "El Medico grafts his vines above ground by the usual mode of tongue-grafting, before the sap has flowed in the spring: it can not be done successfully otherwise." Such would be his language were he to speak only from his personal experience. His egregious failure ofter the flow of the sap, under seemingly the most favorable circumstances, will be found humbly confessed and compassionately printed in the January number of this year's Horticulturist. Without denying that others have met with complete success in grafting the grape after the flow of the sap, 1 must say that my experience, though less extensive, is similar to that of Mr. George W. Campbell, of Delaware, Ohio, who has stated that, after several years endeavors, he could only attain success by grafting before the sap has moved in spring.
With your permission, I will now tell of my "operations" of last spring, and describe their results. A little prolixity will be pardoned when it is remembered that an account of individual "cases" is always more interesting, as well as more instructive, than a simple generalization. The "subjects'* of my experiments were a row of 15 Isabellas and another of 14 wild vines in my garden. They were an old, neglected, and " rough set of customers," which an Irishman might say had been " kicked and cuffed all over creation." At least every gardener who had wielded a hoe for my predecessor seems to have given them a whack. Huge, rough, gnarled, knotty things they were, apparently impregnable, both above and below ground. But thinking my cause a good one, 1 opened the campaign against these rebellious subjects, as soon as the frost was out of the ground, in the last days of February, protected by a thick overcoat, and armed with one of Jackson's best English handsaws. Limbs and roots were attacked, and amputated at the most assailable points, and attempts were made to split them. I had as well tried to " split a horn crossways." I was repulsed, and thought 1 was going to be defeated, when I luckily thought of my surgeon's saw, and put it to a good, if an unaccustomed use.
With it I carefully sawed out a thin wedge of wood, which I used instead of a cleft; and where the stump was very large (and some were 4 or 5 inches in diameter) I sawed out a second wedge, at right angles with the first, thus making four places for the insertion of grafts. The sawed surfaces were carefully smoothed with a sharp knife, like a scalpel; and the grafts, with but one bud, were accurately fitted in. A bass bandage was then applied, not to compress the stumps, for they were irrepressible; but, I suppose, only in obedience to orders, in such cases. Soft earth was then put over the grafts, about as thick as bran is put upon a compound-fractured leg. Medical horticulturists will be specially pleased with this description. Now for a few individual cases.
No. 1. (of the Isabellas.) Feb. 25th, five grafts inserted. Delaware. Nov. 5th. All failed!
No. 2. Feb. 26, two grafts. Delaware. Both lived. Combined length of canes, 32 1/2 feet, large and well ripened. Laterals, 13 feet. Total, 35 1/2 feet. No. 3. Feb. 26, two Delaware grafts. Both failed.
No. 4. March 12, six Delaware grafts. Three grew. Combined length of canes, 25 feet. Laterals, 12 feet. Total, 37 feet. No. 5. Feb. 25, two Delaware grafts. Both failed. No. 6. March 12, two do. One grew. Canes, 43 feet. Laterals, about 10 feet.
No. 7. Feb. 25, six Delaware grafts inserted around a hideous old stump, 41/2 inches in diameter. One only grew. Within One inch of old bud five canes sprang out. Combined length, 47 feet. Laterals, 25 feet. Total, 72 feet.
No. 8. March 1, one Delaware graft. Grew. Cane, 4 feet.
No. 9. Feb. 28, six Delaware grafts. * Four grew. Combined length of canes, 77 1/2 feet. Laterals, 10 feet. Total, 87 1/2 feet.
No. 10. Feb. 28, four Delaware grafts. One grew. Cane, 8 feet. Laterals, 2 feet. Total, 10 feet.
No. 11. March 1, five Delaware grafts. Three grew. Combined length of canes, 50 feet. Laterals, 5 feet Total, 55 feet.
No. 12. Feb. 28, two Delaware grafts. Both failed.
No. 13. March 1, five Delaware grafts. One grew. Cane, 6 feet.
No. 14. Feb. 28, five Delaware grafts. Two grew. Canes, 36 feet. Laterals, 4 feet. Total, 40 feet.
No. 15. March 12, three Delaware grafts. One grew. Cane, 22 feet. Laterals, 6 feet. Total, 28 feet. •
From the above it will be perceived that I put in 56 Delaware grafts, of which only 20 are now living; so that but little more than one-third succeeded. Fifteen old and worthless stocks were grafted, of which eleven are now converted into (with one exception) very strong and vigorous Delaware vines, for which I would not take $10 each, as hard as are the times. On the unsuccessful stocks I may try my hand again next spring. I am, as I think I ought to be, fully satisfied with my beautiful row of Delawares. For a single season's growth they are very large, healthy, and well matured, almost to the tips of the canes. The roots are so strong I shall prune them but very little, and allow them to bear all they will.
Now, something about some other varieties which I grafted on the row of wild vines - all males - with which some ungodly nurseryman cheated and disappointed for some fifteen years the former innocent proprietor of the garden.
Vine A. Four Union Village grafts. All failed. " B. Five Coleman's White. 3 grew. Combined length of canes, 60 feet. Laterals, 5 feet. Wood well ripened.
 
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