Agriculture for Beginners Part 9

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 66.

To make a root graft, cut along the slanting line]

The best time to make this graft is when scion and stock are dormant, that is, when they are not in leaf. During the winter, say in February, is the best time to graft the tree. Set the grafted tree away again in damp sand until spring, then plant it in loose, rich soil.

Since all parts growing above the graft will be of the same kind as the scion, while all branches below it will be like the stock, it is well to graft low on the stock or even upon the root itself. The slanting double line in Fig. 66 shows the proper place to cut off for such grafting.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 67. A COMPLETED ROOT GRAFT]

If you like you may sometime make the interesting and valuable experiment of grafting scions from various kinds of apple trees on the branches of one stock. In this way you can secure a tree bearing a number of kinds of fruit. You may thus raise the Bonum, Red Astrachan, Winesap, and as many other varieties of apples as you wish, upon one tree. For this experiment, however, you will find it better to resort to _cleft grafting_, which is ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 68.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 68. CLEFT GRAFTING]

Luther Burbank, the originator of the Burbank potato, in attempting to find a variety of apple suited to the climate of California, grafted more than five hundred kinds of apple scions on one tree, so that he might watch them side by side and find out which kind was best suited to that state.

SECTION XXIII. BUDDING

If, instead of an apple tree, you were raising a plum or a peach tree, a form of propagation known as _budding_ would be better than grafting.

Occasionally budding is also employed for apples, pears, cherries, oranges, and lemons. Budding is done in the following manner. A single bud is cut from the scion and is then inserted under the bark of a one-year-old peach seedling, so that the cambium of the bud and stock may grow together.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 69. HOW TO CUT A BUD FROM A SCION]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 70. THE STEPS IN BUDDING]

Cut scions of the kind of fruit tree you desire from a one-year-old twig of the same variety. Wrap them in a clean, moist cloth until you are ready to use them. Just before using cut the bud from the scion, as shown in Fig. 69. This bud is now ready to be inserted on the north side of the stock, just two or three inches above the ground. The north side is selected to avoid the sun. Now, as shown at _a_ in Fig. 70, make a cross and an up-and-down incision, or cut, on the stock; pull the bark back carefully, as shown in _B_; insert the bud _C_, as shown in _D_; then fold the bark back and wrap with yarn or raffia, as shown in _E_.

As soon as the bud and branches have united, remove the wrapping to prevent its cutting the bark and cut the tree back close to the bud, as in Fig. 71, so as to force nourishment into the inserted bud.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 71.

Sloping line shows where to cut tree]

Budding is done in the field without disturbing the tree as it stands in the ground. The best time to do budding is during the summer or fall months, when the bark is loose enough to allow the buds to be easily inserted.

Trees may be budded or grafted on one another only when they are nearly related. Thus the apple, crab-apple, hawthorn, and quince are all related closely enough to graft or bud on one another; the pear grows on some hawthorns, but not well on an apple; some chestnuts will unite with some kinds of oaks.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 72.

Lines show where to trim]

By using any of these methods you can succeed in getting with certainty the kind of tree that you desire.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOTH BUSY STORING APPLES]

SECTION XXIV. PLANTING AND PRUNING

The apple tree that you grafted should be set out in the spring. Dig a hole three or four feet in diameter where you wish the tree to grow.

Place the tree in the hole and be very careful to preserve all the fine roots. Spread the roots out fully, water them, and pack fine, rich soil firmly about them. Place stakes about the young tree to protect it from injury. If the spot selected is in a windy location, incline the tree slightly toward the prevailing wind.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 73.

Present shape comes from pruning]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 74.

Correct shape]

You must prune the tree as it grows. The object of pruning is to give the tree proper shape and to promote fruit-bearing. If the bud at the end of the main shoot grows, you will have a tall, cone-shaped tree. If, however, the end of the young tree be cut or "headed back" to the lines shown in Fig. 72, the buds below this point will be forced to grow and make a tree like that shown in Fig. 73. The proper height of heading for different fruits varies. For the apple tree a height of two or three feet is best.

Cutting an end bud of a shoot or branch always sends the nourishment and growth into the side buds. Tr.i.m.m.i.n.g or pinching off the side buds throws the growth into the end bud. You can therefore cause your tree to take almost any shape you desire. The difference between the trees shown in Figs. 73 and 74 is entirely the result of pruning. Fig. 74 ill.u.s.trates in general a correctly shaped tree. It is evenly balanced, admits light freely, and yet has enough foliage to prevent sun-scald. Figs. 75 and 76 show the effect of wisely thinning the branches.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 75.

Unthinned]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 76.

Properly thinned]

The best time to prune is either in the winter or before the buds start in the spring. Winter pruning tends to favor wood-production, while summer pruning lessens wood-production and induces fruitage.

Each particular kind of fruit requires special pruning; for example, the peach should be made to a.s.sume the shape ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 77. This is done by successive tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs, following the plan ill.u.s.trated in Figs.

71, 78, 79. You will gain several advantages from these tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs.

First, nourishment will be forced into the peach bud that you set on your stock. This will secure a vigorous growth of the scion. By a second tr.i.m.m.i.n.g take off the "heel" (Fig. 78, _h_) close to the tree, and thus prevent decay at this point. One year after budding you should reduce the tree to a "whip," as in Fig. 79, by tr.i.m.m.i.n.g at the dotted line in Fig. 78. This establishes the "head" of the tree, which in the case of the peach should be very low,--about sixteen inches from the ground,--in order that a low foliage may lessen the danger of sun-scald to the main trunk.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 77. THE CUSTOMARY WAY OF PRUNING A PEACH]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 78. TWO-YEAR-OLD TREE Cut off heel, _h_]

In pruning never leave a stump such as is shown in Fig. 78, _h_. Such a stump, having no source of nourishment, will heal very slowly and with great danger of decay. If this heel is cleanly cut on the line _ch_ (Fig. 78), the wound will heal rapidly and with little danger of decay.

Leaving such a stump endangers the soundness of the whole tree. Fig. 80 shows the results of good and poor pruning on a large tree. When large limbs are removed it is best to paint the cut surface. The paint will ward off fungous disease and thus keep the tree from rotting where it was cut.

Pruning that leaves large limbs branching, as in Fig. 74, _a_, is not to be recommended, since the limbs when loaded with fruit or when beaten by heavy winds are liable to break. Decay is apt to set in at the point of breakage. The entrance of decay-fungi through some such wound or through a tiny crevice at such a crotch is the beginning of the end of many a fruitful tree.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 79. THREE-YEAR-OLD TREE CUT BACK]

Sometimes a tree will go too much to wood and too little to fruit. This often happens in rich soil and may be remedied by another kind of pruning known as _root-pruning_. This consists in cutting off a few of the roots in order to limit the food supply of the plant. You ought to learn more about root-pruning, however, before you attempt it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 80.

Refuses to Heal--Heals promptly]

How is a peach tree made? First, the blossom appears. Then pollination and fertilization occur. The fruit ripens. The pit, or seed, is saved.

In the spring of the next year the seed is planted. The young tree, known as the stock, comes up quickly. In August of that year a bud of the variety which is wanted is inserted in the little stock, near the ground. One year later, in the spring, the stock is cut off just above the bud. The bud throws out a shoot, which grows to a height of about six feet, and in the fall this little peach tree is sold as a one-year-old tree. However, as is seen, the root is two years old.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 81. READY TO BEAR]

How is an apple tree made? The seeds are saved in the fall of one year and planted the following year. The seedlings of the apple do not grow so rapidly as those of the peach. At the end of the year they are taken up and sorted, and in the following spring they are planted. In July or August they are budded. In the spring of the next year the stock is cut off above the bud, and the bud-shoot grows three or four feet. One year later the shoot branches and the top begins to form; and in the fall of the following year the tree may be sold as a two-year-old, although most persons prefer to buy it a year later as a three-year-old. In some parts of the country, particularly in the West, the little seedling is grafted in the second winter, in a grafting room, and the young grafts are set in the nursery row in the spring to complete their growth.

The planting in the orchard of the young peach and the young apple tree is done in practically the same way. After the hole for the tree has been dug and after proper soil has been provided, the roots should be spread and the soil carefully packed around them.

=EXERCISE=

Do you know any trees in your neighborhood that bear both wild and budded or grafted fruit? What are the chief varieties of apples grown in your neighborhood? grapes? currants? plums? cherries?