BUDDING AND GRAFTING. 



should be perfectly covered with the composition, and the 

 stock and scion must correspond, not only hi their nature, 

 but in their habits of growth. 



Inarching, or Grafting by Approach, This mode is 

 practised with Camellias and Magnolias. A 

 branch is bent and partly cut through, as in 

 figure 52, and the heel, thus formed, is slipped 

 into a slit made downward in the stock to re- 

 ceive it ; the parts are then made to meet as 

 exactly as possible, and are bound with bass 

 strings, as in figure 53, and covered with graft- 

 ing clay, or with the composition. In five or 

 six months the union is complete, and the in- 

 arched plant may be separated from its parent, 

 which is done with a sharp knife so as to leave 

 a clean cut. The head of the stock, if not 

 removed before, is then cut away, and the 



plant is ready for removal. 



There are several other modes of budding and grafting, 



but the above are most useful and commonly practised. 

 The advantages of these operations 



are, the rapidity with which a valuable 



kind may be propagated, which will not 



grow from seed or cuttings: trees of 



worthless fruit may be changed into 



more valuable varieties; seedlings can 



be brought into early bearing ; foreign, 



tender fruits may be rendered hardier 



on hardy, native stocks; a kind of fruit 



may be grown in a soil not congenial to 



it, as the pear by grafting on the quince ; 



several varieties of fruit may be grown 



upon the same tree ; and, finally, by graft- 

 ing on dwarf-growing stocks the trees 



may be so dwarfed as to afford many 



ripening in succession within the limits of a small garden, 

 6 



