ON GRAFTING AND BUDDING THE RHODODENDRON, ETC. 163 



rapid, though all the cellular tissue is capahle of uniting. For this 

 purpose they should be as near of a size as possible, and the slice from 

 each should be very small, allowing as much of the alburnum as pos- 

 sible to remain on both ; it is there where the sap rises ; and if the 

 slice is made, either in graft or stock, through to the heart-wood, the. 

 ascent of the sap is stopped, except by the edges. The graft should 

 not be put on till the stock has commenced to grow, when the new 

 layer of inner bark is about to be formed, and the efforts to unite 

 commence ; both stock and graft are apt to dry and shrink, or cling, 

 and thus part from one another, if done long before the commence- 

 ment of growth. The grafts should be taken off before they begin to 

 spring, and their ends inserted in damp earth ; as they will cling 

 more if taken off after they have begun to swell by growth, and thus 

 part more from the stock. Also, if the living principle is set in 

 motion by the commencement of growth before taking off, and then 

 checked by taking off, or by cold weather succeeding warm, the graft 

 will perish more readily than if the growth of the stock had com- 

 menced first, and the graft been fed from the union of the tree ; for 

 this purpose, the grafts of deciduous plants should be taken off before 

 they begin to swell in the bud ; as, if growth has commenced, it will 

 proceed further in the graft, though off the plant, and be hurtful. 

 Neither seeds nor cuttings will perish near so readily when in a dor- 

 mant state, as when life is set in motion, and then checked. To pre- 

 vent clinging or shrinking, choose well-ripened wood. The young 

 shoots of young trees, or the bottom growths of old trees, are generally 

 more vigorous than the extremities of old trees, vitality is most active 

 in these young shoots ; but in grafts that have the young wood soft 

 and apt to cling, choose Btrong, vigorous, two or three years old 

 wood. Many grafts that succeed with difficulty, if the grafts are 

 retarded, the old wood chosen, and the stock allowed to spring before 

 grafting, will succeed in this way when they will do bo in no other. 

 Much of the success, however, depends on the warmth of the weather 

 keeping the sap flowing. Moist warm weather is good, but heat is 

 the principal requisite, the stocks being already established ; and wet 

 weather is very often cold in spring. The mechanical part of the 

 operation depends on the slopes of the cuts being made to fit one 

 another exactly, which is easiest done by choosing the slopes of the 

 graft to fit those of the stock as nearly as possible, by thin slices being 



o2 



