PROPAGATION OF FRUIT PLANTS.. 



171 



root and the union so that there will be no air spaces. This is 

 very important. In two or three years from the root-graft, the 

 trees will be large enough to be transplanted to the orchard. 

 At that time some of the trees will be well rooted from the 

 cion and others will scarcely show any at all. Others may 

 have lost the stock on which they were grafted and be entire- 

 ly on their own roots. In this latter case the trees will not 

 have made a first class growth, although they may make trees 

 of good size later on. 



Side-grafting. — Side-grafting is a form of union in which the 

 c-ion is inserted in a cut made in the side of the plant gafted on 



Fig. 85. — Crown grafting below the surface of the ground, a. — 

 Inserting cion in root of seedling, b. — ^Waxing the graft. 



and the stock is not cut off until the cion has started to grow. 

 It is especially applicable to cherry seedlings, on which 

 the union should be made at the crown of the plant, which 

 is the point on the seedling where the root and top join. This 

 form of grafting may be successfully used on plums, apples, and 

 other fruits. If it is done on the branches of a tree there is no 

 necessity of cutting off the part above the graft until the cion 

 starts into growth. 



Grafting below ground. — If grafting is done just below the 

 surface of the ground the work is more certaip of being success- 



