42 PROPAGATION OF FRUITS. 



can be of no permanent and real advantage. In grafting, 

 mere propagation should not be the only object, for, to secure 

 a permanent union between the stock and graft is of far more 

 importance. For apples, seedlings of the apple and crab. 

 Pears, those of the wild species or of the quince. Plums, 

 seedlings of the common or wild plum. Cherries, seedlings 

 of any free-growing wild variety. Peaches, on the stock raised 

 from the seed. The apricot and nectarine, the larger sort of 

 plums. 



"The season for grafting may begin by the middle of March 

 and continue until the end of April ; the grafts being cut into 

 lengths of four or five buds each ; the knife to be thin, small, 

 and keen-edged. Cut off the head oi the stock and the base 

 of the scion at a corresponding angle, so as to form, when put 

 together, a neat splice ; the tip of the stock, if larger than 

 the graft, is to be cut off horizontally. Next a slit is made 

 downwards in the centre of the sloping cut in the stock, and 

 a corresponding slit upwards in the face of the scion ; in ap- 

 plying the scion to the stock the tongue formed in the base of 

 the former is inserted into cleft of the latter, and so fitted 

 that the inner bark may unite neatly and exactly on one side ; 

 the splice is then to be tied, or covered with clay or waxed 

 bandage. 



" Cleft and Root Grafting. — Other methods might be 

 mentioned, but it will sufiice for our purpose to include cleft 

 and root grafting: the former being adopted where the stock 

 is larger than the graft, when the head of the stock is cut off 

 and a perpendicular slit made, D, the scion being sloped on 

 both sides, C, and inserted like a wedge into the cleft of 

 the stock as at F. Root grafting is performed on a root a 

 little thicker than the graft, and the more fibrous the better; 

 a quantity of them may be procured in the fall and packed 

 away in sand or earth in a cellar ; those from young, thrifty 

 trees being most desirable; and, when grafted, they may be 

 packed away in earth in a cellar until spring, when they may 

 be planted out in nursery rows." 



We will here give" another description of cleft-grafting or 

 slit-grafting, as gardeners differently term it, so practical and 



