46 PROPAGATIOX OF FRUITS. 



whereas, upon this plan, they will be larger in three or four years, 

 than before the operation. The annexed cut will give an 

 idea of this plan to give a new top of superior fruit bearing 

 branches to a tree, even if old and decayed. 



The following " neiv mode, as it was called, was long kept 

 a secret in France. A limb of willow three or four inches 

 thick Avas buried in a trench deep enough to receive it, and 

 at the distance of every four or five inches holes were bored, 

 into which grafts were inserted, care being taken to make the 

 bark of the graft and the limb into which it was inserted, 

 touch ; the lower part of the graft was pointed and the bark 

 shaved oif. The limb and the grafts were then covered with 

 earth, and abou^ two inches of the latter left above the sur- 

 face. In process of time the limb rotted and the grafts took 

 root. The different grafts were then dug up and trans- 

 planted. 



The theory of grafting has been explained thus : " It is 

 the inosculation of the vessels of the graft with those of the 

 bark and alburnum of the tree, to which they are applied 

 and bound. 



" In grafting, it is necessary to apply the bark which con- 

 tains or consists of the caudex of the young scion, exactly 

 to the bark of the branch into whicli it is inserted or 

 applied ; and then all species of grafting succeeds, whether 

 by excision or inoculation, or inarching. But I suspect where 

 a single bud is inoculated, it has often failed from the ope- 

 rator having selected a Jloiver-hw\ instead of a leaf-bud ; 

 which probably unites its caudex with those of the stock with 

 less vigor, and certainly dies, after it has ripened its seed ; 

 or, by holding the bud in his mouth as he ascends the ladder 

 or while he makes the incision, and thus destroys it by heat 

 as I once observed A leaf bud may in general be distin 

 guished from a flower bud by its being sharper, pointed, and 

 less spherical. 



Cleft grafting is sometimes performed in the following sim- 

 ple manner, "You may cut, at or a little below the surface, 

 any cion whose root is unconnected with the mother stock, 

 and make a split in the stump, and sharpen your graft 



