AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 237 



When inarching is to be performed upon plants in pots or 

 boxes, arrange a firm stand for the plant that may be short, so 

 as readily to bring together the parts to be operated on, mak- 

 ing, however, a little allowance for raising or lowering the one 

 or the other when you come to interlock them. If there is any 

 danger of disturbance, a stay, consisting of a piece of pine board 

 four to six inches wide, may be lashed to the stock and parent 

 tree, extending from near the root of the shorter (see Fig. 

 117 b) ; and if the graft-branch does not easily come into posi- 

 tion to form a handsome head, it may be strained or drawn a 

 little into order by being bound to a stake set for the purpose, 

 or by a fastened cord stretched to some firm hold. 



If well done, they will unite by what surgeons call " first in- 

 tention," and in a few weeks, or sometimes months, more or 

 less, the branch-graft may be severed from the parent tree, and 

 the head of the stock be cut off, each close to the point of 

 union, leaving upon the new tree the appearance of a simple 

 and not very neat splice, which, however, the subsequent 

 growth of the plant will rectify. 



The possibility of making this mode of grafting available in 

 fancy and ornamental arrangements will at once occur to the 

 intelligent reader. It is not absolutely necessary to tongue 

 the parts if they are well matched and bound, nor to separate 

 the graft and stock, or to cut off either of them ; but in ordi- 

 nary cases this is done after they have knitted perfectly, the 

 severance being effected gradually, cutting each about one third 

 through at a time, at intervals of ten or twelve days or more. 



TIME OF GRAFTING. 



Grafting may be performed at any time during the winter 

 upon young stocks cellared for the purpose, and kept in sand 

 or common earth until the opening of spring permits their set- 

 ting out. 



The proper time of grafting on ordinary stocks in the open 

 ground is just as soon as the circulation begins in the spring, 

 and before the growth actually commences. This differs in 

 different trees and latitudes. The following will be found a 

 good general order of grafting, viz. : Cherries, plums, pears, 



