38 



CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT 



then to be tied with a ligature of bass, and clayed 

 over, as is practised in whip-grafting, three or four 

 eyes being left in the scion uncovered. It should 

 be observed, that in making the cleft in the stock, 

 care should be taken not to injure the pith, the sci- 

 ons being inserted in the sap wood of the stock or 

 branch. Old stocks may be grafted in the bark, 

 called crown-grafting, but this cannot be practised 

 successfully till the sap be in full motion, that the 

 bark may be easily raised from the wood. The 

 head of the stock or thick branch is cut off hori- 

 zontally ; a perpendicular slit is made in the bark, 

 as in budding ; a narrow ivory folder is thrust down 

 between the wood and the bark, in the places where 

 the grafts are to be inserted. The graft is cut, at 

 the distance of an inch and a half from its extremi- 

 ty, circularly through the bark, not deeper than 

 the bark on one side, but fully half way through or 

 beyond the pith on the other. The grafts being 

 pointed, and a shoulder left to rest on the bark of 

 the stock, they are inserted into the openings, and 

 either three or four grafts are employed, according 

 to the size of the crown. Side-grafting is some- 

 times employed for supplying vacancies on the lower 

 parts of full-grown fruit trees. The bark arid a 

 little of the wood are sloped off for the space of an 

 inch and a half, or two inches ; a slit is then made 

 downwards, and a graft is cut to fit the part, with 

 a tongue for the slit ; the parts, being properly 

 joined, are tied close and clayed over. When stocks 

 cannot readily be procured, root-grafting may be 

 successfully employed. A piece of the root of a 

 tree of the same genus, well furnished with fibres, 

 is selected, and a graft placed on it, tied and clayed 

 in the ordinary way. Thus united, they are set 

 with care in a trench in the ground, the joining be- 

 ing covered, but the top of the graft being left two 

 inches above ground. 



