heading down or regrafting old trees. 

 There are two methods of doing this : 

 one described in the cut, where the 

 stalk is first cut ofT obliquely, and the 

 sloped part is then cut off horizontally 

 near the middle of the slope ; a cleft 

 nearly two inches long is then made 

 with a sharp knife or chisel, in the 

 crown, downward, at right angles 

 with the sloped part, taking care not 

 to divide the pith. The cleft is kept 

 open by the knife or the small wedge ; 

 the scion has its extremity, for about 

 an inch, cut into the form of a wedge : 

 it is left about the eighth of an inch 

 thick on the bark side, and brought 

 to a fine edge on the inside. It is 

 then inserted into the opening prepa- 

 red for it ; and the knife or wedge be- 

 ing withdrawn, the stalk closes firmly 

 upon it. The other and the more 

 common mode is to saw off the stalk 

 horizontally, make the cleft through 

 its centre, and insert either one or 

 two grafts in the outer edges. In 

 both cases the stalk should be tied 

 and covered with the wax or clay. 



" Whip-grafting {Fig. 1, a), or, as 

 it is sometimes called, tongue-graft- 

 ing, is mostly adopted in nurseries, 

 where the stalks are generally small. 

 It is desirable that the stalk and graft 

 should be of nearly similar size. The 

 scion and stalk are cut off obliquely, at 

 corresponding angles, as near as the 

 operator can guess ; then cut off the 

 tip of the stalk obliquely, or nearly 

 horizontally ; make now a slit nearly 

 in the centre of the sloped face of the 



stalk downward, and a similar one ia 

 the scion upward. The tongue or 

 wedge-like process, formipg the up- 

 per part of the sloping face of the 

 scion, is then inserted downward in 

 the cleft of the stalk ; the inner barks 

 of both being brought closely to unite 

 on one side, so as not to be displaced 

 in tying, which ought to be done im- 

 mediately, with a riband of bass or 

 other soft string, brought in a neat 

 manner several times round the stalk. 

 The next and finishing operation is to 

 cover the whole wound with the pre- 

 pared wax or clay already described. 

 The French mode of whip-grafting, 

 which is also in common use here, 

 differs from the English, in their 

 never paring more off the stalk, how- 

 ever large, than the width of the sci- 

 on (Fig. 2, a, b, c, d). In both, the 

 sialic is sometimes left a few inches 

 above the graft till autumn, to tie tiie 

 young shoot to, lest it be blown off. 



" Side-grafting (Fig. 1, c) resem- 

 bles whip- grafting, except it is per- 

 formed without taking off the top of 

 the stalk. 



" Shoulder or chink grafting is per- 

 formed with a shoulder, and some- 

 times also with a stay at the bottom 

 of the slope. It is chiefly used for 

 ornamental trees, where the scion 

 and stalk are of the same size (Fig. 

 \,d,e,f). 



" Grafting in the root is sometimes 

 performed m nurseries, where stalks 

 are scarce, as described in Fig. 2, e." 



" The season for performing the 



331 



