PROPAGATION AND FRUIT-STOCKS 351 



the roots. The blackberry, Japanese quince, and to some 

 extent the peach, cherr^'^, apple, and pear may be propagated 

 b}^ root-cuttings. 



316. Grafting and budding. — The arts of grafting and 

 budding are indispensable to the fruit industiy, since prac- 

 tically all the tree-fruits are propagated in this way. Both 

 processes involve the introduction of a portion of one plant 

 into or onto the living or actively vegetative portion of 

 another. In the former, a piece of the woody shoot bearing 

 one or more buds is used, while in the latter one butl only is 

 removed from the mother plant and introduced beneath the 

 bark and in contact with the cambium of the "stock." 

 Grafting is usually done in early spring just prior to or during 

 the active period of growth, or in the case of root-grafting 

 (bench-grafting) in the winter period. It is usually desirable 

 for the cion material to be in a dormant condition when the 

 union is made, although it is not necessarily fatal to have 

 the buds of the cion l)eginiiing to open. 



317. Tongue-graft or whip-graft. — For the propagation 

 of nursery trees the tongue- or whip-graft is most commonly 

 used, and the work is performed in the winter. The one- or 

 two-year-old seedling trees are dug in the fall and stored 

 where they can be kept cool, reasonably moist, and donnant. 

 In Januaiy or Februaiy the grafting is done in-doors, which 

 gives it the name bench-grafting. To produce what the 

 nurseiyman calls "whole-root" trees, the entire seedling root 

 is used, trimming off branching or superfluous parts, and the 

 cion is inserted into the crown of the root. For "piece-root " 

 grafts the seedling roots are divided into several pieces, about 

 3 or 4 inches long, thus securing several trees from one root. 

 Both the cion and root are severed with a long oblique cut 

 and an incision is made into the center of these surfaces so 

 that the "tongue" of the cion will enter into the incision of 

 the root, thus allowing the cambium areas to come into con- 



