INCREASING STRIKE OF HERBACEOUS GRAFTS. 



31 



reach the extremity of the section -J inch below the bud with 

 the point of the blade. The blade is then taken out of the sec- 

 tion, and a transversal section, TT' 

 (Fig. 42), made level with the longi- 

 tudinal section so as to cut through 

 the bark only. The bud is then 

 seized between the thumb and first 

 finger of the right hand near TT' 

 (Fig. 43) and lifted. If we con- 

 tinued to lift the bud, the sap-wood 

 which has been cut in TT 7 is com- 

 pletely separated from the bark of 

 the bud, and the latter would be 

 completely hollowed. It is there- 

 fore necessary, when the bark has 

 been separated from the sap-wood 

 up to the level of the bud, to draw 

 the bud slightly towards the oper- 

 ator (Fig. 44). The tongue of sap- 

 wood MM' breaks level with the *-*w - wt -'-' 

 bud ; a part of the sap-wood adheres to the scion-bud, the 

 front portion remaining fixed on the shoot in the shape of a 

 two-pronged fork (Fig. 45). The scion-bud is flattened, its 

 base cut fresh, and the sap-wood smoothed with the rounded 

 part of the grafting-knife. This mode of operating, which 

 is very difficult to explain in writing, is very easy to perform 

 in practice. It certainly is the most rapid way of excising 

 the scion-bud. Sometimes, when the shoot is too tender 

 and the buds very close together, the sap-wood, instead of 



Fig. 41. 

 Preparing the bud. First operation. 



Fig. 42. 

 Second operation. 



