438 On Grafting. 



Another and a surer mode consists in preserving 

 the strips, and covering the cylinder with them, except 

 the bud or eye, and to retain them by means of ban- 

 dages, which may afterwards be easily detached when 

 required. 



When it is difficult to find a branch, the bark of which 

 will fit exactly the branch which is cut in strips, the fol- 

 lowing expedient must be adopted. If it is too narrow, 

 a branch must be slit longitudinally on the side oppo- 

 site to the bud, and the cylinder being taken off, is to 

 be applied to the wood. Then a part of a strip is to be 

 raised that corresponds to the deficiency in the cylin- 

 der, and must be divided in its whole length, of a 

 breadth wanting in the ring, so that this division fills 

 the vacant space : finally, we raise up and surround it 

 all around with the strips, as has already been di- 

 rected. 



If the bark cylinder is too large, we cut it to the di- 

 ameter of the wood ; then fit the edges, as nearly as 

 possible, and cover them with the strips." 



Mr. Thomas A. Knight says that '* the Spanish 

 chesnut succeeds readily when grafted in almost any 

 of the usual ways, and when the grafts are taken from 

 bearing branches, the young trees afford blossoms in 

 the succeeding year."* I entertain no doubt of the 

 same observation applying to our American chesnut. 



Those who may wish to plant chesnuts on a large 

 scale, or to raise nurseries of the trees, ought to take 

 the precaution of planting the nuts in the burs, for the 

 field mice will certainly destroy them if the bare nuts 

 be planted. 



* Trans. Horticultural Soc. London, vol, 1, p. 62. 



