PROPAGATION. 37 



have been grafted late in spring, a loose wrapper of white 

 paper round the graft will protect it from the drying and 

 scorching rays of the sun ; or shrivelling and failure will 

 often be prevented by covering the whole graft with a wax 

 plaster; or by encasing it in moss kept damp by occasional 

 applications of water. 



ROOT-GRAFTING. This is done by whip or tongue grafting, 

 already described on a previous page. It is wholly performed 



FIG. 55. 



within doors, and consequently the seedlings must be taken 

 up the preceding autumn. 



Root-grafting is well understood by nurserymen ; but there 

 are many who desire information on the subject, and espe- 

 cially on the expeditious performance of this operation. A 

 grafter may work hard a whole day, and by an inconvenient 



i 



FlG. 56. Showing a Cut from Shoot, Natural Size. 



arrangement of tools and materials, insert not a third as many 

 as another, who gives careful attention to all these particulars. 

 The following method is the result of long practice, and by it 

 we have known a skilful workman to 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 thou- 

 sand five hundred on another occasion, in eleven hours. 



FIG. 57 . 



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 



