GRAFTING. 17 



securely united, also the bandage ; and the angle left at the top 

 of the stock, a, should now be cut off smoothly, in order to allow 

 the bark of the stock and the scion to heal neatly over the whole 

 wound. 



Though it is little attended to in common practice, the ama- 

 teur will be glad to know that the success of a graft is always 

 greatly insured by choosing the parts so that a bud is left near 

 the top of the stock, k, and another near the bottom of the scion, /. 

 These buds attract the rising sap to the portions where they are 

 placed, form woody matter, and greatly facilitate the union of the 

 parts near them ; the upper part of the stock, and the lower part 

 of the scion, being the portions soonest liable to perish from a 

 want of nourishment.* 



Cleft grafting is a very easy though rather clumsy mode, and 

 is in more common use than any other in the United States. It is 

 chiefly practised on large stocks, or trees the branches of which 

 have been headed back, and are too large for tongue-grafting. 

 The head of the stock is first cut over horizontally 

 with the saw, and smoothed with a knife. A cleft 

 about two inches deep is then made in the stock with 

 a hammer and splitting-knife. The scion is now 

 prepared, by sloping its lower end in the form of a 

 wedge about an inch and half long, leaving it a 

 little thicker on the outer edge. Opening the cleft 

 with the splitting knife, or a small chisel for that 

 purpose, push the scion carefully down to its place, 

 fitting its inner bark on one side to that of one 

 side of the stock. When the stock is large, it is 

 Fig. 4. usual to insert two scions, Fig. 4. On withdraw- 

 ing the chisel, the cleft closes firmly on the scions, when the 

 graft is tied and clayed in the usual manner. 



Apple stocks in many American nurseries, are grafted in 

 great quantities in this mode the stocks being previously taken 

 out of the ground, headed down very near the root, cleft grafted 

 with a single scion, sloping off with an oblique cut the side of the 

 stock opposite that where the graft is placed, and then planted at 

 once in the rows so as to allow only a couple of buds of the scion 

 to appear above ground. It is not usual with many, either to tie, 

 or clay the grafts in this case, as the wound is placed below the 

 surface ; but when this plan is adopted, the grafts must be set 



* In grafting large quantities of young trees when stocks are scarce, it is not an 

 unusual practice in some nurseries to tongue or whip-graft upon small pieces of 

 roots of the proper sort of tree, planting the same in the earth as soon as grafted. 

 Indeed, Dr. Van Mons considers this the most complete of all modes, with regard 

 to the perfect condition of the grafted sort ; 1st. because the smallest quantity of 

 the stock is used ; and 2d, because tVe lower part of the scion being thus placed 

 in the ground, after a time it throws out fibres from that portion, and so at last is 

 actually growing on its own roots. 



