166 Fruit-growing in Arid Regions 



a young orchard may be grown as near like it as is 

 possible. 



In top-working young trees, it is a common practice 

 to set the trees where they are to grow, and after the 

 scaffold limbs are well formed, to graft or bud into these 

 the future top. Some eastern men have advocated 

 purchasing two-year-old trees in the fall (trees in which 

 the head is already formed) to be grafted-over indoors 

 in December. In the West, and especially on a large 

 scale, this system would hardly seem to be practicable. 

 The method in this case is whip-grafting. 



Grafting Young Trees. In grafting young trees in 

 the field, it is probably well to perform the operation as 

 early in the life of a tree as possible. As soon as a good 

 strong framework can be secured, the tree is ready for 

 top-working. The small size of the stubs makes cleft- 

 grafting difficult and kerf-grafting almost out of the 

 question. Some growers, however, report good success 

 in cleft-grafting young trees after two years' growth 

 from a yearling whip. In this case, the stubs must be 

 bound with waxed cloth or other material to hold the cion 

 firmly, and then waxed as in cleft-grafting larger stubs. 



Another mode, known as whip-grafting, is well adapted 

 to working these small stubs of young trees. The process 

 is well illustrated in Figure 54. With this style of graft- 

 ing, it may be possible to set the cions after one year's 

 growth in the field, but it is doubtful whether much time 

 will be gained by such practice. The cion should be as 

 near the size of the stub as possible, if anything a little 

 smaller. The cambium of the stock and cion is matched 

 only on one side, paying no attention to the other. The 



