GRAFTING WAXES, WOUND DRESSINGS, ETC. 



225 



wrapping reduces injury, the best material being rubber, then cloth 

 (which gave the largest percentage of smooth healthy trees). 

 Cloth is also cheaper. The investigators strongly oppose wrapping 

 with thread and then waxing. 



291. Bass, the inner bark of basswood, has until re- 

 cently been used in greenhouses and nurseries to tie 

 plants, buds and grafts. Raffia has almost replaced it. 



292. Raffia, the lower epidermis of a 

 Madagascar palm (Raffia ruffia), peeled 

 in narrow strips and dried, is extensively 

 used in America and Europe for tying 

 vines, flowers, celery and in graftage. It 

 is soft, strong enough for the purposes, 

 and not quickly altered by moisture or 

 temperature. Because of its cheapness it 

 has displaced bass in nursery and green- 

 house practice. Its chief fault is its ten- 

 dency to roll when dry. Moistening 

 overcomes this. As received from 

 abroad, it is in plaits or skeins. Fig. 185 

 shows one of these unraveled. 



293. Grafts in moss and charcoal. R. 

 C. de Briailles has simplified grape 

 bench grafting by the following plan : 



As the grafts are made they are placed in a 

 box containing a three-inch layer of damp moss 

 and charcoal (three to one) and covered with 

 another layer about half as deep. So on till the FIG. 185 



box is nearly full, the remaining space being SKEIN OF RAFFIA 

 filled with packing. The box may thus be ship- 

 ped or the grafts treated at once by being placed in 

 a room warmed to 50 or 60 degrees. Within 24 hours the 

 buds start to swell, and in a week may be one-half inch long, when 

 the moss is removed for inspection. If all is well, new packing is 

 applied about half as thick. 



If any grafts are rotting, the whole are exposed for 24 hours 

 and then covered. If too dry, a thicker layer of packing is added 

 and the box stood in water of the room temperature till the packing 

 is moistened nearly up to the callus. The tops of the grafts must 

 not be wetted, else rotting may follow. Watering thus once a 

 week will be enough. 



In two or three weeks the grafts will have callused and leaf 



