OP DWARF FRUIT TREE CULTURE. 



57 



inferior Adriatic figs. Of late years, however, the Capri fig and its 

 little wasp has been introduced into that state, and now the produc- 

 tion of the true Smyrna fig is an accomplished fact in California. 

 The California Smyrna fig outranks the imported variety. 



GRAFTING AND BUDDING. 



The necessity of testing the result of our hybridizing as soon as 

 possible leads up to the subject of grafting and budding, which every 

 horticulturist should understand and be able to practice. I will 

 now describe the "modus operandi" thereof. 



Cleft Grafting Cion for Grafting 



Fig. 53 Fi &- 54 



Grafting and budding are modifications of the same process and 

 have the same object in view, that is, to reproduce a variety of fruit 

 or flower from the bud of one already in existence. Grafting 

 is of several varieties, such as root grafting, crown grafting, whip 

 grafting, wedge or cleft grafting and shield grafting. For sub- 

 urbanite's use, however, the cleft and whip grafting are the only 

 varieties likely to be practiced. Root grafting is done in the winter, 

 and may be done in the house and by the fireside and packed in a 

 box of mx)ist earth and kept in the cellar or buried till the spring 

 and then planted in the nursery. In the case of the apple, 

 pieces of apple roots, about four to six inches long and about the 

 thickness of a lead pencil, are secured as a stock, and cions of the 

 same thickness are grafted in the same manner as whip grafting, 

 which will be described further on. It is chiefly used by nurserymen 

 for propogating large quantities of nursery stock during the dormant 



