MANY KINDS OF GRAFTING WAX 79 



wide. Waxed cloth is made by dipping cheap cotton cloth into hot 

 wax, pulling the pieces between the edges of two boards to take out as 

 much wax as possible, and when the cloth is cold, tearing it up into 

 half-inch strips for small grafts or wider strips for larger grafts. When 

 grafting is going on indoors, these strips hanging near the stove are 

 kept in good, soft condition for use. 



There are grafting preparations which do not require heating, but 

 remain in a semi-fluid state, and then become very hard by contact with 

 the air. The following is a popular French preparation: 



Melt one pound of resin over a gentle fire. Add to it one once of beef tal- 

 low, and stir it well. Take it from the fire, let it cool down a little, and then 

 mix it with a tablespoonful of spirits of turpentine, and after that add about 

 seven ounces of very strong alcohol. The alcohol cools it down so rapidly that 

 it will be necessary to put it once more on the fire, stirring it constantly. Great 

 care is necessary to avoid igniting the alcohol. 



This wax is easily prepared, and when well corked will keep for six 

 months. It is put on the wounded part of the tree, very thin, and soon 

 becomes as hard as stone. Thus it is valuable not only for grafting, 

 but for covering the scars caused by removing limbs in pruning. It is, 

 however, rather an amateur's recourse, as it is rather expensive for 

 large commercial operations. 



As a substitute for all the old grafting-waxes, asphaltum, "Grade 

 D," has recently been widely and successfully used. It is kept a little 

 warm to spread well. Resin may be melted in one part to four. 



Cleft Grafting. Where various-sized stocks are to be used, as 

 will be the case with a bunch of home-grown seedlings, different styles 

 of grafting must be used. Where the stock is much larger than the 

 scion, as is apt to be the case with California seedlings, the cleft graft 

 will be simplest. Cut off the top smoothly above the root crown and 

 then split the top of the stock, as shown in the engraving. Then pre- 

 pare the scion by whittling it to wedge-shape at the lower end. Open 

 the slit in the stock with a little wedge and insert the scion so that its 

 inner bark matches with the inner bark of the stock, something as shown 

 in the second figure. It does not matter whether the outside of the scion 

 is flush with the outside of the stock or not ; the vital point is to get the 

 growing layers, just inside the barks, in contact with each other, and, to 

 be sure of this it may be well to give the scion a slight diagonal pitch, 

 for if the barks cross each other, this desirable contact is sure to be 

 made. It is well to make the side of the wedge of the scion which goes 

 nearer to the center of the stock a little thinner than the outside. 



A scion for a root graft is cut longer than for use in the top of the 

 tree, for in planting, the point of grafting is placed a little way under- 

 ground. Such scions are usually cut wtih four or five buds. After 

 the scion is in place, it only remains to wrap it closely with a piece of 

 waxed cloth or paper, in such a way that all the cut surfaces are 

 covered, extending the wrapper a little below the split in the root. 

 Paint over the wrapper with warm wax put on with a brush, put a little 

 on the top of the scion, and the graft is complete. 



Side Grafting. Another method which prevents splitting the 

 stock is the side graft, shown in the accompanying figure. It consists 



