1869.] CULTIVATION OF HARDY FRUITS. 57 



incipient growth, and the scion torpid, cellular granulations will have time to 

 form and unite the wound, and the scion will become distended with sap forced 

 into it from the stock, and thus be able to keep its buds alive when they begin to 

 shoot into branches. In order to assist in this part of the operation, a ' heel' is 

 sometimes in difficult cases left on a scion, and inserted into a vessel of water, 

 until the union has taken place ; or, for the same purpose, the scion is bovxnd 

 round with loose string or linen, with one end steeped in water, so as to secure a 

 supply of water to the scion, by the capillary attraction of such a bandage. In- 

 deed, the ordinary practice of surrounding the scion and stock at the point of 

 contact with a mass of grafting clay, is intended for the same purpose — that is to 

 say, to prevent evaporation from the surface of the scion, and to afford a small 

 supply of moisture ; and hence, among other things, the superiority of clay over 

 the plasters, mastics, and cements occasionally employed, which simply arrest 

 perspiration, and can never assist in communicating aqueous food for the scion. 



Indeed, the whole secret of success depends upon attending to these 

 few simple facts — facts so simple that "he who runs may read," learn, 

 and put into practice with the greatest of confidence. 



Almost every one has a mixture of his own, which he terms graft- 

 ing-wax or grafting-clay, with which he covers over the union between 

 the scion and the stock. Last spring w^e grafted a considerable num- 

 ber of Apples, and used nothing else than clay got at a brickwork 

 near by, and which had been well "milled," and rendered as plastic 

 as butter ; this we found to answer admirably, as the result proved 

 equal to our anticipations. Most people, however, introduce some 

 foreign substance, which has a tendency to prevent cracking. This, 

 however, is not necessary if the clay is covered with moss and mois- 

 tened two or three times a-week by a watering-pot with a fine rose. 

 I intend, however, this spring, when grafting, to introduce a little of 

 the combings of horses, which, I believe, will make it even unnecessary 

 to use moss. Mr Thomson, in the ' Gardener's Assistant,' recom- 

 mends " two parts of clayey loam and one part of cow-dung free from 

 litter . . . with some fine short tough hay mixed and beaten 

 up with the cow-dung and clay." Others use horse-dung and clay, 

 while another party uses a combination of all the three, which we 

 believe to be the best where a mixture is made, as the horse-dung 

 will, to a certain extent, prevent cracking, while the cow-dung will 

 render the whole more plastic where the clay is inclined to be loamy. 

 Where clay can at all be got we would not recommend "wax," as clay 

 keeps the scion in a more natural condition than it is possible to obtain 

 from wax, which only serves the purpose of excluding the air and pre- 

 venting evaporation without sujDplying that moisture which is so con- 

 genial to the wellbeing of the graft. I may, however, give a few of 

 the component parts which diflferent horticulturists have used as graft- 

 ing-wax. First, bees' wax and tallow, equal parts, laid on warm with 



