116 GRATE CULTURE AND 



performed below the ground, as is generally the case r and 

 the stock is strong enough to 

 hold the scion firmly, no bandage 

 is necessary. A little moist earth, 

 pressed upon the cut of the stock 

 and around the wound, is all 

 the sealing it needs. But if the 

 stock is small, it ought to be firmly 

 tied with raphia, or strands of rice 

 straw, as found in the matting 

 around tea, which makes a very 

 good bandage. Draw the cut 

 firmly together, and wind the 

 wrapping around the stock evenly 

 until the whole cleft is covered. FIG. 



I generally take three buds to the scion. If above ground, it 

 ought to be waxed, that is the whole cut: covered with graft- 

 ing wax of some kind, to exclude the air. 



A variation of this method is. to make a slanting cut in 

 the side of the stock, downwards to the middle, then cut 

 your scion to a simple wedge as above, and push it down on 

 one side, so as to join the bark of the stock. This has the 

 advantage that the stock need not be cut off, in case the 

 scion does not unite with it, and as the fibres of both, the 

 scion and the stock, are cut transversely, the pores join bet- 

 ter. As soon as the scion starts, cut off the stock above it^ 

 taking caTe, however, not to disturb the scion in the operation. 



Another common method is the so called English cleft, or 

 splice graft, (Fig. 9) especially applicable to smaller stocks,. 

 when the stock is not much larger than the scion. A sloping, 

 transverse cut is made on a smooth place of the stock, up- 

 wards, and a similar one on the scion downwards, then a 

 split is made longitudinally, from the middle of the transverse 

 cut ; in the stock downwards, upwards on the scion ; and 



