248 PLANT PROPAGATION 



two sides to fit snugly are inserted and waxed. For best 

 results the cut surfaces of cion should not be 

 parallel, but slightly wider apart outside than in- 

 side, so the cions may be pressed in place both from 

 above and from the side toward the center of the stock. 

 This form of notch grafting has the advantage of making 

 the cions about as firm as in cleft grafting without 

 wounding the stock nearly so seriously. 



Two other forms (Fig. 179, A), often called bark graft- 

 ing, start the same way, but instead of notching the wood, 

 the cion, in one case cut to a thin wedge, is thrust between 

 bark and wood, tied and waxed; in the other, narrow 

 strips of bark about one inch long are removed and the 

 cions, cut with a shoulder opposite a well-developed bud, 

 are set in the notches, tied and waxed. In t}dng it is well 

 to use one-half-inch tape soaked in grafting wax and to 

 bind tightly, to prevent injury by accident. Both stub 

 and upper tips of cions should be covered with wax. 



320. Smith's improved graft, an English method. Ac- 

 cording to a writer in the Gardeners' Chronicle, cions of 

 one or two-year wood of fruit trees are given a three- 

 fold grip on the stocks (one-half to one and one-half inch 

 in diameter), which becomes covered the first year. Fig. 

 184 shows the defects of the old mode of "rind" graft- 

 ing; Figs. 184, B, C, show the preparation of the stocks 

 one small, the other large. In Fig. 184, D is the finished 

 graft waxed, and in Figs. 184, E, F, the effect of one year's 

 growth. This plan offers more than ordinary resistance to 

 wind. 



321. Splice grafting the easiest method of all, is 

 done by making an oblique cut across both stock and 

 cion, as if making the first cut in whip grafting, but not 

 forming a tongue in either part. The two pieces, being of 

 approximately equal diameter, are placed together so 

 their cut surfaces match and are then tied and waxed. 

 The method finds its most useful application to small 

 tender shoots which cannot be safely split. 



