g^ CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



with the same layer of the stock. It can be applied to any part 

 of the tree, from the topmost branch to the lowest root, as is the 

 case when new trees are made from scions and root fragments. 

 Thus grafting pertains both to the production of young trees for 

 planting out and to the transformation of old trees bearing worth- 

 less fruit into producers of choice varieties. 



Grafting for the production of young trees is first in order. 

 Instead of budding the seedling during the first summer of its 

 growth, it may be allowed to complete its season's growth, and 

 drop its leaves. When thus dormant the young trees are taken 

 from the ground, the roots rinsed off with water if the ground is 

 wet and sticky, or merely shaken free from clinging earth if in a 

 dry time. Enough trees are dug at once to graft at a sitting. The 

 grafting can be done at the work-bench in the tool-house or barn, 

 and if one is pressed with other daylight work, it may be done by 

 lamplight at the kitchen table, if the housewife can be conciliated 

 for the muss it will make. 



Care of Scions. The scions should be previously selected, and 

 whether taken from trees on the place or brought from near or 

 distant sources away from the farm, should have been placed as 

 soon as procured in moist earth on the north side of the house or 

 other building, where they will keep cool and damp until one is 

 ready to use them. At the East and in parts of this State where the 

 ground is apt to freeze, it is necessary to keep scions in the cellar 

 with their butts covered with moist sand, but over most of the area 

 of the State nothing more is needed than to put down in the earth 

 at the base of a tree or on the north side of a building, with, per- 

 haps, a box or barrel inverted over them to keep out mice and 

 other intruders. Care must be taken not to let them dry up. If it 

 is desirable for any reason to keep scions dormant long into the 

 spring or summer, of course storage in a cool cellar is better, for 

 in the open ground the scions will burst into leaf after a warm spell 

 of spring weather. 



In selecting wood for scions, as for bud sticks, never take water 

 shoots or suckers that start from the body of the tree and push up 

 through the older branches, but always give the preference to 

 sound, fully-matured wood, at the ends of the lower or nearly hori- 

 zontal branches. Careful experiments have shown that trees 

 grown from such scions are more likely to take on a low, spreading 

 habit than those from the central or upper branches. The scions 

 should be tied in bundles with a stout cord ; and a piece of a 

 shingle, with the name of the variety written plainly and deeply 

 thereon, should be tied in with each bundle. 



Grafting Wax. In grafting, a good grafting wax is requisite. 

 The ingredients are mixed in - different proportions by different 



