170 POPULAR FRUIT GROWING. 



more hardy than when they depend entirely on the seedling root 

 for support. Great care should be taken to have the soil very 

 firm and solid around the base of the root and at the union. 

 This may be secured in several ways. Some nurserymen use 

 a large dibber, having a guard on the side to prevent its go- 

 ing too deep. With this a hole is made sufficiently wide and 

 deep to permit the insertion of the graft easily so that not more 

 than one or two buds project above the ground. To do this 

 work most expeditiously, the grafts should all be of the same 

 length and free from side branches. Two persons should work 

 together, a man who uses the dibber and a boy who carries the 

 grafts. The man makes a hole with the dibber, the boy puts 

 in a graft, when the man immediately makes another hole by 

 the side of and two inches away from that containing the graft, 

 and, pressing toward the graft, packs the soil firmly around it. 

 After each row is finished in this way, the man should turn back 

 on the row and press firmly by the side of each graft with the 

 ball of the foot. 



Another method of planting root-grafts and cuttings, which 

 is applicable for planting cuttings on a small scale, is as fol- 

 lows. This is not a fast method but is very excellent for 

 a few grafts: The thoroughly plowed land is smoothed off, a 

 line stretched and walked on where the row is to come and 

 then thrown to one side. With a spade throw out a furrow 

 along the line, leaving the edge straight and smooth and nine 

 inches deep. Against this place the grafts and then with a hoe 

 turned bottom up push a little earth against the lower part 

 of the root of each graft, and afterwards draw three inches of 

 soil into the fun-ow around the grafts and then press firmly 

 against each graft with the ball of the foot. Fill the trench 

 full and repeat the footing process again. A more expeditious 

 way is to plow out a furrow instead of making it with a spade, 

 and then fill the trench with a plow. In this way the work may 

 be successfully done if the soil is not dry and the season is fa- 

 vorable. But it pays well to do good work, and, where one has 

 only a few hundred or a thousand grafts to plant, the spade 

 method is most certain. In planting in a dry time the great 

 key to success is to have the land firm and solid around the 



