5^4 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



clearly a foot from the ground, and smooth otf the 

 surface. Then insert back or crown grafts i in. 

 apart all round. Tie a tight band of binder twine 

 several thicknesses round, and apply grafting wa.x 

 all round and over. If the operation be done as 

 the tree is beginning to show leaf and the scions 

 are dormant, nearly all will take, and the stem 

 being protected from the sun by a bit of canvas, 

 the bark will heal over the edges. The object of 

 putting in so many grafts is to keep the bark 

 lively all round, and to provide as many active 

 growing buds as possible in place of the former 

 tree top. I am sure that if a big tree has to be cut 

 down this is the best way to reduce the shock as 

 much as possible. The following diagram after 

 Balat, shows how the crown graft is put in. It 

 will be seen that the wood is in no way damaged. 

 The graft. Fig. 1234, is shown with a shoulder ; but 

 I do not trouble about cutting one, and merely cut 

 the scion with a long sloping cut, 1^ inches long. 

 The bark in Fig. 1234, as shown, is lifted too much. 



Fig. 3, shows the grafts inserted and the stem 

 bandaged. It will be noted that the bark has been 

 displaced but very little. 



The following is the method to be adopted. The 

 tree is to be first cut dow-n, say a foot above the 

 place intended for the grafting. When ready to 

 graft, a clean saw cut is made at the right place, 

 and the surface smoothed with a sharp knife or 

 spokeshave, especially all round the sap wood and 

 bark. 



To prepare for the scions a vertical slit is made 

 through the bark about an inch in length, then 





Fig. 2134. 



with the handle of a budding knife or a piece of 

 hard wood sharpened to wedge shape and smooth- 

 ed, the bark is lifted from the sap wood enough to 

 allow of the scion being inserted. 



The scion having been prepared as shown, it is 

 carefully slipped down in the place prepared for 

 it, bound round, waxed, labelled, and the work is 

 done." 



FRUITS FOR THIRST. 



fHEMICAL analysis would assigri prac- 

 tically no nutritive value to the juicy 

 fruits, for they consist of little more 

 than a cellulose envelope containing- a solu- 

 tion of sugar, the amount varying from 17 

 per cent., as with grapes, to about i. 4 per 

 cent., as with lemons. The amount of 

 water in fruit is considerable. In water- 

 melons it is no less than 95 per cent., in 

 grapes 80 per cent., in oranges 86 per cent., 

 in lemons 90 per cent., in peaches ^S per 

 cent., in apples 82 per cent., in pears 85 per 

 cent., in plums 80 per cent., in nectarines 

 83 per cent., and in strawberries 90 per 

 cent., not a fruit in the whole category con- 



taining less than 80 per cent. The irresis- 

 tible conclusion, considering these facts, is 

 that fruit plays an important role in the diet 

 as a thirst quencher. Certainly when fruits 

 are freely represented in the diet less fluid 

 requires to be consumed, and fruit would 

 appear to be endowed with a subtle inimi- 

 table flavor which is ample inducement to 

 imbibe fluid in this most wholesome form. 

 Moreover, the juice of fresh-cut fruit is 

 perfectly free from microbes, is as sterile as 

 freshly clean drawn milk, and the fruit acids 

 tend to inhibit the power of those disease- 

 producing bacteria which flourish in neutral 

 or alkaline media. 



