SUPPLEMENT. 69 



When grafts are wanted for use at a distance, they must 

 be cut in advance ; and the favorable season taken for cut- 

 ting the branches. 



When the branches stored with buds, that are to be trans- 

 ported to a distance, are cut, they must be enveloped in reed 

 leaves, and packed in a new, unvarnished basket, with dios- 

 pyros branches. When the opening of the basket has been 

 well covered, and the grafts are perfectly sheltered from the 

 exterior air, they may be transported to a distance of a thou- 

 sand Us, (a hundred leagues) without running the risk of be- 

 ing injured by the cold. For fruit trees, grafts must be ta- 

 ken from the three year old branches ; the manner of pre- 

 serving and uniting them, (grafting,) is the same as with 

 mulberry trees. 



Siu-kouang-ki says : For that purpose the best branches 

 are those of the same year ; it is an error to recommend for 

 that object branches of three years old. Grafting must be 

 deferred, absolutely, until the last quarter of the moon. 

 This operation may be performed after the second quarter 

 of the moon, and during the first quarter of the following 

 moon ; but the last day of the moon is much more favorable. 

 The time between the first and the second quarter is unfavor- 

 able ; grafting must then, absolutely, be abstained from ; the 

 time of the full moon is still more dangerous. 



CLEFT GRAFTING. 



To begin : The stock must be sawed horizontally, at a 

 small distance from the ground. W T ith a sharp knife, with 

 the point turned up, two oblique incisions about an inch and 

 a half in length, must be made right and left in the bark 



