AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 213 



Grafting may be well performed with any good straight- 

 edged knife, but it is better to have two, the one for cutting 

 the graft, which may be light, and must be kept as thor- 

 oughly sharpened as a razor or surgical instrument ; the other, 

 for splitting the stock, should be stout, and its edge kept smooth 

 and in good order. When large stocks are split it is done 

 with the grafting tool (Fig. 99), the edge of which should also 

 be kept in first-rate order. 



When cleft-grafting is to be performed on a large number 

 of moderate-sized stocks before planting, a simple machine 

 knife may be used for splitting them, the stock being held 

 with the left hand in a groove immediately below the knife, 

 the lever handle of which is raised by a spring, and brought 

 down by pressure of the hand or foot, and the stock split pre- 

 cisely to the extent desired, the knife, which is curved back- 

 ward, entering the side of the stock gradually from heel to 

 point, so that the split is almost always smooth. 



See also Stock Splitter, Fig. 100, p. 215. 



There is also a machine for cutting the graft-wedge ready 

 for insertion, which does its work with rapidity and neatness. 

 It is doubtful, however, whether its uniformity of cut may not 

 seriously interfere with that judicious adaptation of the wedge 

 to the split which enables us to match the bark of graft and 

 stock throughout almost or quite the whole length of the cut, 

 in which, in connection with the keeping a perfectly smooth, 

 keen edge upon your knife, and the neat, " slick," expert use 

 of it in making the various cuts, lies the whole secret of suc- 

 cess in grafting. 



GRAFTING STILETTO! 



Fig. 98. 



The stiletto, Fig. 98, is a small instrument a few inches 

 long and about a quarter of an inch in diameter, the lower end 

 of which is fashioned as a rather long, tapering, half-round 

 wedge, corresponding in form, and, as near as may be, in size 



