214 AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



with the graft-wedge to be inserted in the opening which it 

 prepares. It is intended exclusively for crown grafting, which 

 see, and may be of steel, or bone, or hard wood ; or may be 

 made on the spur of the occasion from a green scion. It may 

 have a pocket-case, or simply a loop by which it may be hung 

 upon a twig or button. A goldsmith's burnisher of suitable 

 size, costing twenty-five to fifty cents, may be used as a sub- 

 stitute if desired. 



GRAFTING TOOL. 



Fig. 99. 



The grafting tool, as shown in Fig. 99, is formed of a small 

 bar of steel from twelve to fifteen inches long, half an inch 

 wide, and rather over a quarter of an inch thick, one end being 

 drawn so as to make it a little lighter than the other. A 

 short wedge is formed upon each end for use in opening the 

 cleft while inserting the graft ; that at the heavier end is ab- 

 ruptly bent backward at a right angle to the knife, the lighter 

 end being curved in the opposite direction sufficiently to allow 

 of the tool being hung over a branch by it. The knife, which 

 is formed simply by forging out the bar near its heavy end to 

 about two inches width, may be made larger or smaller, but 

 four inches may be regarded as a good size, the edge having a 

 curve equal to the sweep of an eight-inch circle. It should 

 be forged thicker at the middle than the ends, making both its 

 sides slightly and equally convex. The back of it should be 

 beveled to about half of its full thickness, so that its battered 

 edges, after much use, may not tear the crown of the stock 

 when driven into it. 



This is a perfectly satisfactory instrument for use among 

 large stocks and limbs, if they are split at all, but for such 

 the simpler process of crown grafting with the use of the sti- 

 letto is greatly preferable. See page 233. 



