6 



ROOT GRAFTING. 



good, the seedlings should have made from one to two feet of 

 growth the first season. 



The seedlings may be allowed to remain in the seed-bed until 

 the following spring and then transplanted to the nursery to be 

 budded. If to be root-grafted, they should be dug in the fall 

 and carefully packed in moss or moist sawdust, and kept in a cool 

 cellar until wanted for grafting. 



ROOT GRAFTING. During the winter, when very little can be 

 done out of doors in the nursery, such work as root grafting and 

 making cuttings is done indoors. The seedlings, 

 previously dug and packed in moss or sawdust, are 

 taken as needed from the cellar and the cions 

 grafted upon them at or just below the collar, i. e., 

 that part where the root and top joins. The kind 

 of graft known as tongue or whip-grafting is illus- 

 trated by Figures 1, 2 and 3. 



The stock (Fig. 1) is taken in the left hand, and 

 such lateral roots as will interfere with planting are 

 shortened and the lower end cut off if the root is 

 more than eight inches long; six to eight inches is 

 the usual length of the root. An upward, slanting 

 cut is then made, with the tongue as at a. The 

 cion (Fig. 2), a piece four to six inches long, of the 

 last season's growth of the variety desired, and as 

 nearly of the same size as the stock as possible, is 

 then taken and a similar cut made at the base. The 

 two parts are then pressed firmly together, and the 

 union is bound firmly with waxed string or waxed 

 cloth (Fig. 3). Some nurserymen prefer the string, 

 which does not cover the entiiv surface of the cut, 

 and others the band, which perfectly excludes the 

 air and moisture. Cions should not be cut when 

 fro/en, but may be cut at any other time and pre- 

 served in damp moss until wanted for use. 

 Fi."'- ' After the root-grafts are thus made, they are 



packed in boxes of sand or light soil, and the soil very firmly 

 packed around them, especially at the point where the graft is 



Fig. 2. Fiu. 3. 



made. In the spring the root-grafts and seedlings are to be 

 transplanted to the nursery. 



