OK CItAFTlXG THE ftOSE, 109 



and below the clay, insert it in a small phial, kept constantly filled 

 With water, in order to keep the scion fresh until the junction 

 takes place. When well established, remove the phial and cut off 

 the overplus close to the stocky covering it with cement. 



When the shoots are on, tie up the whole with a bass ligament, 

 to prevent the scions from ever shifting, and then cover the whole 

 beneath the lowest bud, with grafting clay, taking care to exclude 

 air, sun, and rain. If the clay crack, it must be renewed, not by 

 shifting, but by filling up the crack, 



In about six months, the clay may be removed^ and the wound 

 covered with mixture, this latter must on no account be omitted. 



The choice of scions is regulated by the same rules as the choice 1 

 of buds, only that in choosing scions some reference must also be* 

 had to the wood, which should have a sufficient thickness to keep 

 it from getting dry easily, and to facilitate the operation of sloping 

 the edges, The best buds arc generally nearer the base of the 

 shoot than the summit, but two or three scions may sometimes be 

 got from a single shoot. No scion should be used when the buds 

 upon it appear to have shrunk and lost their fulness, from having 

 been laid by, and care should be taken on passing the bass liga- 

 ment round the stock for the purpose of fixing the scions, that a 

 piece of the bass be brought between the scions in such a manner 

 as to protect the clft in the centre of the stock from the clay, and 

 to^Ieave the vacuum to be filled up with sap. 



Should any graft fail, which will be seen in a longer or shorter 

 space of time, according to the weather, (viz. in moist, dull, grow- 

 ing weather it will soon show, in that which is dry, windy, or cold 

 there will be delay,) you have still the resource of knocking off the 

 clay and reserving for use the fresh buds which start from the 

 stock, in which case, cut the stock off immediately above them, 

 and bud in the following autumn as usual. 



Grafting the rose, however, leaves a worse wound to heal over 

 than budding, unless the scion be nearly the same size as the 

 stock, or two or three scions of free-growing sorts be entered in 

 the same graft : there is also this disadvantage, that the portion of 

 the scion that is entered in the stock is smooth, and consequently 

 does not from time to time furnish new wood, whereas in bud- 

 ded stocks, shoots occasionally spring from the inserted eye, (and 

 iliil sometimes years after it ha8 taken.) thus renewing the tree 



