75 CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



top. Sometimes a smaller can is used and a small oil lamp used as 

 a heater under the wax container. A wire handle makes this outfit 

 portable. A very neat small wax heater may be made of a common 

 lantern a funnel-shaped tin cylinder put in place of the glass globe, 

 the lower end being of the same diameter as the bottom of the globe. 

 The top is about five inches in diameter and a small can containing 

 the wax is set down in it. The wax should not be so hot as to run 

 too easily, but just right to spread well. 



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

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

 enough to spread well. Many use the asphaltum pure ; others prefer 

 addition of resin one part of the resin to three or four parts of 

 asphaltum, according to different grafters' experiences. The two 

 substances are melted together over a slow heat. The resin over- 

 comes the running tendency of the asphaltum in hot weather. A 

 good grafting wax is also made by melting together four parts by 

 weight of asphaltum to one of paraffine. 



Grafting is greatly facilitated by the use of strips of waxed cloth 

 or waxed paper, the latter being quite good enough for grafts, which 

 are set low enough to be protected by a ground covering; also for 

 root grafts. This waxed paper is made by spreading a thin coat of 

 wax, with a brush, upon tough, thin wrapping paper, cutting up the 

 paper, when cold, with a sharp knife, on a board, into strips about 

 an inch 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 ounce of beef 

 tallow, 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 

 years, always ready. 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 operations for which asphaltum is used. 



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. 



