GRAFTING. 23 



scion, covering the cut part with brown paper or 

 cotton cloth, which has been previously covered 

 with grafting wax. Last spring we engrafted the 

 pear upon roots of the quince, and immediately 

 set them out, covering them to within two buds 

 of the scion. Nearly all made a good growth the 

 past summer. In this mode of grafting, care 

 must be taken that the roots are kept moist. 



In the choice of scions, we usually select those 

 from the young wood of the previous season's 

 growth, choosing them from the outside lateral 

 branches in preference to those growing in the 

 centre. These should be cut from the parent tree 

 some time previous to the season for grafting, as 

 it is found to be better that the stock should be in 

 a more advanced state of vegetation than the 

 scion. 



The following is an excellent mode of grafting : 

 When the bark will readily peel from the al- 

 burnum, the head of the stock is then taken off by 

 a single stroke of the knife, obliquely, so that the 

 incision commences about a diameter below the 

 point where the medulla appears in the section of 

 the stock, and ends as much above it as on the op- 

 posite side ; the scion, or graft, which should not 

 exceed in diameter half of that of the stock, is 

 then to be divided longitudinally, about two 

 inches upwards from its lower end, into two equal 

 divisions, by passing the knife upwards just in 

 contact with one side of the medulla. The 

 stronger division of the graft is then to be pared 

 thin, at its lower extremity, and introduced, as in 

 crown-grafting, between the bark and wood of the 

 stock ; and the more slender division is fitted to 

 the stock upon the opposite side. The graft, con- 



