Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

and a string being tied round them both, the graft is ready to be set in the inclined position represented in the figure to the usual depth, as seen by the line (o).

We recommend this laborious process to those who have the very imperfect heat of the brick flue, and the still more valueless Polmaise heat, because they will gain a fair success by grafting. It is also best that those using the hot water pipes as a source of heat, graft their more difficult kinds; though pipes with a high heat are nearly as successful as the tank. And those who want to use the tank at a low heat, and have the old rule of "four weeks" before the buds swell much, must graft or lose most of their buds. But those who are not reluctant to put on a high heat, with a cool atmospheric temperature, and are to be trusted to watch and attend promptly to the tank, may save themselves the work of making thousands of grafts, at a large cost, and at the same time be as successful with the most difficult kinds, as if they grafted them all. Let it be noted, once for all, that high heat is the most successful with the more obstinate kinds, as well as those the most facile, but to succeed must have all propagating appliances, proportionately carried out in the house. A slow, donkey railroad train needs a less prompt and exact class of mind, than the lightning express train. Experience has amply demonstrated the success of high heat over any other method for native buds.

MATERIAL OF TANKS.

Wood has already been said to be the best; iron, zinc, pottery troughs, and other material have been described. But cheapness, and the ten or twelve years durability of wood, and its known superiority over these other substances, leaves nothing else but wood to be spoken of, at present, for American propagating houses. Omitting many lesser topics we next

notice a few of the

OTHER WAYS OF PROPAGATION.

And first "sun heat germination." The term is brief, though not distinctive. It consists of boxes six inches deep, and of any convenient width and length. In the bottom of the boxes fresh horse manure is trampled down firmly, three or more inches deep, and then the box is filled level with good earth or soil mixed with sand enough to make it very porous and loose. The buds are set in the earth inclined, and in rows one inch and a half or two inches apart, and half an inch from each other in the row. The peculiarity is the time of the year in which they are started. Cuttings for this method should be taken from the vine as soon after the frost has killed the leaves of the vine in the fall as possible, tied in bundles and buried two or three feet deep in a hole dug in the garden, or other outdoor spot, and if on the north side of a house or building so much the better, and be suffered to remain there till late in the spring. This is better than to put them on ice in ice houses or elsewhere. Never put them in a cellar. Then as soon as fruit buds appear on the vines in the grapery, dig them up and cut them into single eyes and set them in boxes as already described. Take the boxes when full of buds and place them in rows, or any other convenient way, in the grapery, or other glass structure as hot by the heat of the sun as the grapery, taking special care to have the bottoms of the boxes two feet from the ground.

It will be seen that though the air of the glass structure is hotter than the temperature of the manure and earth in the boxes, which is not desirable, yet the hot air of the house heats promptly the boxes and their contents, and for that they are placed two feet from the earth, lest the border of the grapery keep the manure and earth in the boxes cold. It will also be seen that the air at night is colder than the contents of the boxes, which is a gain. The routine of care is the same as if on the tank, damp hot air, which the grapery needs at this time, plenty of water though not drowning with water, with tepid water, and other usual care. Though very many buds will fail, and this plan is not to be thought of in comparison with the propagating house, yet one with a grapery, or similar structure, can germinate successfully many thousand buds each year, if he is not. deprived of sunlight by a long cloudy period at the very time in their growth, when the callus roots are being sent forth.

TWO AND A HALF EYED CUTTINGS.

This well known way is named because where it is desirable to propagate many plants of a vine, whose cuttings are easily and cheaply obtained, it is a very feasible mode. It consists of cuttings of two buds and the spare wood of the third joint, if that is necessary, to make them about a foot long. When the latitude will allow them, as well as the kind or variety to be put out directly in the vineyard, as is said to be a very successful practice in some parts of the country, the setting of a vineyard is easily done. But the further north this is attempted, and in certain soils, the more difficult this becomes. Not that they cannot be set, but enough will not grow to pay for the time and the trouble of setting them in a vineyard. It however is a plan that can and will ever be used for nursery beds everywhere, in light, warm, favorable soils. Practically it will be found, the further south, the better the success, till a point, perhaps, is reached, where it is the only method of germination worth attention. And the further north the poorer it is, until it ceases to be of any value at a certain degree of latitude. We are credibly told that the truth of this is seen by the ease of its use on the Ohio river, and the disuse of it as an extensive system in other places which ripen the grape well.

At the north, we believe with a gain, it is recommended to cut the cuttings before the ground freezes, and at once set them in beds, and cover them with manure and earth, so as to exclude severe frost, and let them remain so all winter. Uncover them gently in the spring, without disturbing them. More are said to grow by this means than if the beds are made and set in the spring. But here as in all other cuttings, no slow dripping soaking of water through the cuttings, must be allowed, or the mucilage will dissolve out and the callus cannot form, and hence a temporary roof all over them is a gain. He who waters his cuttings heavily ruins them. A "contraband" colored friend of mine, has eminent success by covering the beds with three inches of tan bark, which he allows to remain on them all the season.

PROPAGATION BY LAYERS.

This way of propagating is so slow a process, as to be unthought, of for a vineyard requiring thousands of plants. It is therefore to be used only by the amateur for a few garden or dooryard vines, or small vineyards.

(See fig. 37). Figure 37 shows the method of propagating by layers and two ways of using it. At (a) is the old vine rooted in the soil, and (b) is a last year's cane-sprout from near the root, bent down into a slight excavation and held there by a hooked stick, or a wooden pin with a nail driven in part way as a hook over it. This in the fall or next spring can be removed, and will make one and only one vine. Or the end (b) can be bent in and out of the ground, if long enough, several times, and thus make several vines. At (c) is seen another branch of the old vine bent down into a box buried in the earth, for a very special and useful purpose; and (e) is the box having three or more inches of fresh horse stable manure in the bottom of it, and rich earth fills the rest of the box; the branch (d) is bent down and secured by a pin as before, only in the earth in the box, This bending down should be as early in the season as possible, and in the latitude of the writer by May first. On or about the fifteenth of June, at (d) in the figure, cut a notch in the vine, and every few days thereafter cut the notch deeper, so that by the middle of July the vine at (d) is cut entirely in two. Then a few days after it has been completly severed, dig up the box (e) and remove it to any place within a few miles, or even hundreds of miles; and having prepared its permanent site, carefully take off the bottom of the box and set it out, by sliding or placing it carefully in its place. Water it, and take care of it, and by fall it will be well established in its new site; though, as the roots have not penetrated the soil very deeply, it is better to give it some winter protection, by a mass of manure about the roots covered with earth, and a little brush or a few pieces of boards over the manure to keep it in place. This is a good way at times, promptly, to get a new and valued variety, and establish it in one

season.

REPEATED LAYERING.

Many wild seedlings in the woods, or other wild places, or neglected kinds, most obstinately refuse, except on the hot water tank, to be propagated by cuttings, and, therefore, another kind of layering is recommended. Select a long cane of last year's growth, before it commences its growth in the spring. Bend it down to quite near the earth, so that it can be easily put under the earth at pleasure. Let the upper end of the branch be a little lower than the main vine, so that when the buds break, they may all break nearly or quite alike. Here let the branch remain until the buds start, and grow three or four inches long, when the vine will appear as in fig. 38-at (a). (See fig. 38.)

Dig a trench beneath the branch to receive it readily, and fill it with rich earth, manure and compost or muck that has been frozen during a winter, and leave an open space for the branch. Now place the branch in this open space, and it will appear as at (b). Fill up this open space, after securing the vine in it, leaving the ends of the growing bud sprouts, a little above the soil, and as they grow train them up on sticks stuck in the ground, or a small trellis made to receive them all. Before fall cut off the branch from the parent old vine, by little repeated cuttings at (c), and if the bud shoots or new little vines are rapidly growing, divide the underground branch between each little vine. In the fall or the next spring, remove the vines thus established. This is a very good way for very in

[graphic]
« PředchozíPokračovat »