G RAFTA GE. 



three cents a stub is a common price. A good grafter in good 

 ' ' setting " can graft from 400 to 800 stubs a day and wax them 

 himself. Much depends upon the size of the 

 trees, their shape, and the amount of pruning 

 which must be done befere the grafter can work in 

 them handily. Every man who owns an orchard 

 of any extent should be able to do his own grafting. 

 The most important factor in the top-grafting of 

 an old tree is the shaping of the top. The old top 

 is to be removed during three or four or five years 

 and a new one is to be grown in its place. If the 

 tree is old, the original plan or shape of the top 

 will have to be followed in its general outlines. 

 The branches should be grafted, as a rule, where 

 they do not exceed an inch and a half in diameter, 

 as cions do better in such branches, the wounds 

 heal quickly and the injury to the tree is less than 

 when very large stubs are used. The operator 

 should endeavor to cut all the leading stubs at ap- 

 proximately equal distances from the center of 

 the tree. And then, to prevent the occurrence of 

 long and pole-like branches, various minor side- 

 branches should be grafted. These will serve to 

 fill out the new top and to afford footholds for 

 waxed stub P runers aQ d pickers. Fig. 81 is a good illustration 

 of an old apple tree just top-grafted. Many stubs 

 should be set, and at least all the prominent branches should be 

 grafted if the tree has been well-trained. It is better to have 

 too many stubs and to be obliged to cut out some of them in 

 after years, than to have too few. In thick-topped trees, care 

 must be exercised not to cut out so much the first year that the 

 inner branches will sunburn. All large branches which must 

 be sacrificed ought to be cut out when the grafting is done, as 

 they increase in diameter very rapidly after so much of the top 

 is removed. One horizontal branch lying directly over or under 

 another should not be grafted, for it is the habit of grafts to 

 grow upright rather than horizontally in the direction of the 



