APPLES. 



339 



with the feet ; rake the bed smooth : afterwards the only 

 care will be to keep them clean from weeds. 



The next spring it will be best to take them all up, shorten 

 the ends of the roots, and sort them, so as to have them as 

 near of a size in each row as possible. Having the nursery 

 ground ready, proceed to plant them in rows, about four 

 feet apart, and about two feet from plant to plant in the row, 

 here they may remain two years, and the only care required 

 will be to keep them free from weeds until they are fit for 

 grafting. 



Grafting. 



The most expeditious mode of performing this operation 

 in the nursery, is by heading the stocks down to the ground, 

 and having the scions of such sorts as are required, in readi- 

 ness, make a cut in the stock, first sloping it off, then take 

 the scion or graft, sloping it off in the same manner so as to 

 form a splice ; make a split upwards in the scion, and down- 

 wards in the stock, and tongue them together, so that the 

 bark of the graft may meet and join well with the bark of 

 the stock : then apply a string of bass matting around 

 the parts so joined to keep them together, afterwards with a 

 hoe draw up the earth so as to cover the place of contact 

 with the mould. 



When the grafts are well taken, untie the string before it 

 cuts much in the stock, and the work is performed. 



This operation is termed whip- grafting ; and, in fact, 

 every other species of grafting, however varied, and by what- 

 ever name called, is nothing more in reality than the simple 

 principle of cutting off a piece of the bark of the stock and a 

 piece of the bark of the graft, tying them together, and ex- 

 cluding the external air from the wound until it heals, when 

 by a natural process the graft will be united to the stock. 



If trees require to be grafted to a standard height, the 

 operation and the principles are the same, only some graft- 

 ing clay, or a composition of wax, rosin, and tallow, must be 

 used to exclude the external air. As many sorts of compo- 

 sitions have been proscribed, my impression is that nothing 

 more is required than to exclude the air ; whatever answers 

 this purpose best is all that is required. The composition 

 of Forsyth, (of which so much has been said,) I admit, is 

 very excellent ; the principle article of the composition, viz. 

 cow-dung, was known hundreds of years before Forsyth 



