VIII PROPAGATION 153 
by heat, but kept in the winter sleep. The stocks, 
however, should be just a little forwarder, by having 
been brought into the house a short time before, 
not actually started, but ready to grow at once on 
the application of heat. 
The method of grafting usually employed is the 
easiest and simplest—whip-grafting, which is an 
ordinary plain splice, such as a fisherman would 
make to his broken rod. The stock is cut straight 
across with scissors an inch or two above the soil 
in the pot, and is then sliced up on one side only 
with a sharp knife to form the stock half of the 
splice. 
For the scion only one bud is used. The shoot is 
snipped into little bits, by cutting across as close as 
possible above each bud. This will leave, below 
each, an inch or more of wood, which should then 
be sliced up to form the other part of the splice. 
Stock and scion should be as nearly as possible of 
the same diameter, but it will not matter if the 
stock is somewhat the bigger of the two. 
The essentials of grafting are :—that on one side 
at least the inner bark of stock and scion should 
exactly meet, that flow of sap in the stock should 
take place at once, and that air should be excluded 
till the scion has made some growth. 
To meet the first of these necessary points is very 
important. Of course the two parts to be brought 
together will not fit exactly once in a hundred times, 
and the only care therefore should be that the scion 
should fit on one side of the stock and not be placed 
in the middle. 
To prevent its slipping during the tying is rather 
a difficult task till one has seen ‘how it’s done.” 
