October, 1919 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 21 



Points on Art of Top Working 



Cuntimifd from page 10. 



tough that it springs back upon the 

 scion and holds it firmly in place. The 

 cherry and prune are sometimes cleft 

 grafted with fair success, but the wood 

 is more easily split and does not hold 

 the scion as well as docs apple and pear 

 wood. Consequently, the bark graft is 

 more popular for the stone fruits. The 

 bark graft is best for healing over large 

 cuts on both stone and pome fruits. 



Cleft Grafting. 

 The equipment needed for cleft graft- 

 ing consists of a fine-tooth hand saw, a 

 grafting tool made of steel and equipped 

 with a blade for making the split cut 

 and a wedge for holding open this cut, 

 a wooden mallet or a hammer, a small 

 sack to hold the scions, and some graft- 

 ing wax. If the weather is cold, the 

 grafting wax should be kept hot in what 

 is called a grafting pot. The essential 

 features of these grafting pots are an 

 alcohol lamp set in the bottom of a 

 small bucket with holes made for draft 

 and above a basin placed in the top of 

 the pail to hold the melted grafting 

 wax. Melted wax should be put on 

 with a brush. In making the cleft graft, 

 limbs of from one-half to two and one- 

 half inches in diameter are chosen. 

 These limbs are cut squarely acro,ss 

 with a saw and the edges smoothed 

 with a knife. The .splitting tool is next 

 brought into play and driven down into 

 the center of the limb by blows from 

 the mallet. A. cut from an inch and a 

 half to two inches long is made in this 

 way. The splitting tool is then re- 

 moved and the wedge of the tool is in- 

 serted near the center of the limb if it 

 is a large one or at the side if it is 

 small. The wedge is driven deep 

 enough so that the scions may be placed 

 at the edges of the cleft. Scions for 

 grafting are chosen from the central 

 portion of the one-year-old wood where 

 the wood is mature and the buds are 

 plump. Two or three buds are left on 

 each scion. The scion is shaped by cut- 

 ting a thin long wedge, starting on each 

 side of the lowest bud, so that the buds 

 will face outward when the scion is 

 set. The outside of the scion should be 

 cut a little thicker than the inside, in 

 order that the cambium layer of the 

 scion may be held firmly against the 

 cambium layer of the stock. \Vhen the 

 scion is set it should be slanted slightly 

 toward the outside in order that the 

 cambium layer may cross. If the limb 

 is an inch and a half or more in diame- 

 ter, two scions are usually set. If it is 

 smaller, one only can be set. As soon 

 as the scions have been set and the 

 wedge removed, the graft is waxed very 

 thoroughly along the sides and over the 

 top and the tips of the scion are also 

 touched with wax to prevent evap- 

 oration. 



Bark Grafting. 

 In bark grafting the limb is cut at 

 right angles with a saw as in cleft graft- 

 ing. But, while in cleft grafting there 

 arc only two scions set, in bark grafting 

 there may be several, usually about a 

 couple of inches apart, around the edge 

 of the cut. The scion for bark grafting 



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