AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



233 



below a bud, so that its swell may rest upon the bark of the 

 stock on both sides of the cleft, as shown Fig. 114 e. 



CROWN GRAFTING. 

 Fig. 115. 



a. Shouldered graft for crown grafting. 



6. A simple tapering half-round graft for crown grafting. 



c. A large tree crown grafted and ready for covering. 



d. A large tree or limb crown grafted and covered with rag and composition. 



CROWN GRAFTING is altogether the simplest, easiest, and 

 most desirable mode for grafting very large limbs or trees. In 

 this process the head or limb is sawed off and smoothed as for 

 cleft grafting, but, instead of splitting the stock, the grafting 

 stiletto (Fig. 98, page 213) is carefully passed to the depth of 

 one or two inches between the bark and wood, loosening the 

 former, and slightly cracking it open, when the graft, which is 

 cut only on one side as a tapering half-round wedge, of any 

 desired length, and with or without a shoulder (Fig. 115 a, b), 

 is firmly set in. 



Two, three, or even four such grafts may be set in a large 

 limb (Fig. 115 c, <i), their number, if they all live, hastening 

 the covering of the stump of the limb, and when this is effected 

 they can be cut away. If it happen that they grow so much 

 the first season as to be in danger from winds, let them be 

 slightly shortened in August, or braced ; but this will not often 

 be necessary. 



