BUDDING AND GRAFTING. 



123 



especially desirable in top-grafting trees in dry seasons or in ex- 

 posed locations. It is a very valuable adjunct to the grafting outtit 

 and its use should be more general. Of course the bags should te 

 removed as soon as the scions start, and the same care should be 

 taken in the use of wax around the graft as if the night cap was 

 not used. 



The following notes on grafting different fruits will perhaps be 

 of interest : 



Grafting Apples.— Apples in the open ground should be 

 grafted about the time the buds are nicely started, but the scions 

 should not have started at all. It is the easiest of all the fruits to 

 graft, and almost any method may be used successfully on it. The 

 scions should be from four to six inches long. 



Grafting tLie Plum.— The plum is most successfully grafted 

 very early in the spring— even before the frost is out of the ground 



or a bud has commenced to 

 swell. The work when 

 done at this time is gener- 

 ally successful, though not 

 as certain as the apple. It 

 is said that the plum may 

 be grafted very successful- 

 ly later in the spring, even 

 after the buds have com- 

 menced to swell, providing 

 the buds on the scion are 

 started as much as those 

 on the stock at the time 

 the work is performed. 



The plum may be quite 

 successfully root-grafted 

 in the house in winter, as 

 recommended for the apple 

 and treated the same way, 

 but it generally takes a 

 year longer to get the tree 

 formed, since in this case the growth from the scion is quite 

 slow the first t^o years. 



On account of the slow growth trees grown in this way are 

 often crooked and unpromising. This defect, however, may be 

 remedied by cutting away in the early spring of the second year 

 all the growth from the scion except one strong bud at iis base. If 

 this work is done very early in the spring it will result in throwing 

 the whole strength of the root into a single bud and the forming of 

 a stem that is straight in place of the former crooked one. A much 

 better and more satisfactory plan than root-grafting is to plant the 

 stocks in the nursery one year before they are intended to be 

 grafted, and then graft them below the surface of the ground very 

 early in the spring. For this purpose cleli or whip-grafting should 



Fig. IQZ.— Grape viae root. grafted. 



