196 Apples. 



insert three thousand grafts, with an assistant to apply the wax 

 plasters, during ten hours in a single day, in the best manner, and 

 three thousand five hundred, on another occasion, in eleven hours. 



The tools consist, first, of a sharp, thin-bladed knife, of which the 

 best is made from the blade of an old scythe, ground to its proper 

 form on a grindstone ; second, a bench or table placed in front of a 

 light window, and on which the work is done ; third, an apron, worn 

 by the grafter, the two lower corners being hooked fast to two sharp 

 nails on the near edge of the table, for holding the scions while cutting 

 them ; fourth, strips of waxed paper, about an inch wide, made by 

 brushing over sheets of thin, tough paper, a melted well-stirred mixture 

 of four parts of rosin, two of tallow, and one of beeswax, and then cut 

 into strips when precisely at a proper degree of coldness to separate 

 well by means of a knife cutting upon a smooth board. A sufficient 

 number of these for immediate use, should be hung near enough to 

 the stove which heats the room, to keep the wax upon them about 

 the consistence of butter on a summer day, so as to fit and adhere 

 to the grafted root, without melting and running. 



The first operation is to cut up the grafts from the shoots or scions. 

 It is performed by holding the scion in the left hand, the thicker end 

 pointing towards the right hand, which holds the knife. Such a 

 shoot is represented of diminished size, by Fig. 230, the points, a, a, 



Fig. 230. 



a, the pkces where it is cut into grafts, and the dotted lines show 

 how the cuts are made. Fig. 231 shows a portion of the shoot the 



natural size ; I, the first cut nearly directly across ; 2, the second 

 or sloping cut, and 3, the slit for the tongue ; and the whole finished 

 and separate in Fig. 232. Three strokes of the knife are thus 

 required to cut and prepare each graft, and a rapid and skilful opera- 

 tor has done one hundred and twelve in the manner described, in 

 five minutes. Each shoot is thus cut up while yet held in the left 

 hand, and the grafts, as fast as they are severed, drop into the cavity 



