22 FRUIT-GARDENING. 



to drive in a small wooden wedge to prevent tlie split stock 

 from crushing the scion. A little caution must be exercised 

 on this subject, to have the stock pinch sufficiently tight to 

 hold the scions securely in the desired position, else they will 

 not live. And if the scion be crushed by too severe pressure, 

 it cannot be expected to live. 



SIDE-GRAFTING. 



This mode is sometimes practised on those parts of a tree 

 where a limb is wanting. There are two ways in which it 

 may be performed. 1st. The scion may be prepared in the 

 same manner as for splice-grafting, and the bark and wood on 

 the side of the stock cut sloping ; the scion being then adjust 

 ed as carefully as possible, it must be bound on and covered 

 with clay. 2d. The scion being cut sloping, a crosscut is to 

 be made in the side of the tree on the top of a perpendicular 

 slit ; the bark of a tree above the crosscut must be pared down 

 slanting to the wood, and the bark raised as in budding ; the 

 scion being then inserted, it must be bound fast, and covered 

 with clay. 



SPLICE OR WHIP-GRAFTING. 



This mode is often practised on small stocks, and it succeeds 

 best when the scion and stock are of an equal size. The scion, 

 which should consist of young wood of the former year s 

 growth, may be cut to the length of about four inches. This 

 and the stock are each to be cut sloping for an inch or more, 

 and tongued. Tonguing consists in cutting a slit in the mid 

 dle of the slope of the stock downward, and a corresponding 

 slit in the scion upward ; both are now to be joined, so that 

 one of the sides, if not both, shall perfectly coincide, and then 

 securely bound with bass matting and covered with grafting- 

 clay or composition. As soon as the scion and stock are com 

 pletely united, the bass string may be removed. 



