TIMES FOR GRAFTING 



93 



Another method is an application of what the French call oblique 

 side grafting. It consists of making an oblique cut downward 

 through the bark of the stock and for a distance into the wood, 

 using a chisel and mallet or even a strong knife. A saw and knife 

 are also used for making this cut, as well be described in the chapter 

 on the peach. A small form of side graft has already been shown 

 earlier in this chapter. In it the scion is held in with a wax band. 

 Some growers remove the top of the stock with a sloping cut about 

 half an inch above the scion, as shown in the engraving, and wrap 

 the waxed band well around and over all the exposed surfaces. 

 Others do not remove the whole of the limb until the scion has 

 started well into growth, and then they cut down and pare the stock 

 and cover with a band or with a wax that will not run in the sun. 



Several ingenious devices have been patented by Californians 

 for securing uniformity in the incision in the stock and in shaping 

 the scion, but it is so easy to succeed with ordinary tools that such 

 inventions have never come into wide use. Machines for the bench 

 grafting of vines have, however, been successfully employed to a 

 certain extent, but are not generally used. 



TIMES FOR GRAFTING IN CALIFORNIA 



There is nothing particularly new about the methods or means 

 employed for grafting deciduous fruit trees in California, but the 

 time at which the operation can be successfully done, and the condi- 

 tion of the scion, are different from those held to be necessary in 

 other climates. It is not at all requisite that the scions should be 

 carefully stored away to keep them in a dormant condition, nor 

 that the grafter should haste to do his work in just such a state 

 of sap-flow in the spring time. It was early discovered that graft- 

 ing could be successfully done with growing scions, and that scions 

 could be cut from one tree and set in another nearly at any time 

 the grafter desired. Grafting is therefore possible much later ir\ 

 the season than is prescribed elsewhere, and it is also possible to 

 begin earlier. In one of the largest apple and pear orchards in the 

 State it is common to graft in December. The absence of freezing 

 weather saves the graft from injury. As our trees start their flow 

 of sap early, and often when the ground is too wet for comfortable 

 orchard work, it is the practice of many to get their grafting 

 and pruning done before the heavy mid-winter rains begin. The 

 practice of most growers is, however, to conform somewhat nearly 

 to traditional methods, to do most of the grafting in the spring 

 months, and to use dormant scions, the growth of which is retarded 

 by heeling them in on the north side of a building, or keeping them 

 in sand in the cellar, as the grower chooses. Of course it should be 

 understood that there are parts of the State where the winter con- 

 ditions are more nearly like those at the East, and practice has to 

 conform to them. 



