THE MANSE GARDEN. 107 



pared clay, and press it all round the tying in the 

 form of an eo-ff, smoothing it with a little water, and 



no' o 



making it adhere to the bark both of twig and stem, 

 so as to exclude the air. In claying, the chief care 

 is not to disturb the joint; and if you have reason to 

 think that any derangement has taken place, you 

 must punish yourself by beginning the work afresh, 

 that being less vexatious than the subsequent disco- 

 very of a bungled job, which can admit of no remedy 

 for twelve months to come. 



As no small help to the success of the operation, 

 take a piece of thick brown paper, and wrap it round 

 the clay, including also the scion as in a tube. The 

 paper may be kept in its place by pins, or a tying of 

 twine; and its great use is both to prevent rains from 

 washing off the clay, and the sun from shriveling the 

 bark of the young shoot, before its veins have received 

 the strange but vital fluid, About midsummer give 

 relief to the knit joint, by removing the clay and 

 bandage ; but as the wind may prove trying to the 

 recent graft, the bond must be restored, and that so 

 easy as not to impede the circulation, and yet so firm 

 as to guard against a rupture of the union. In the 

 case of old trees, where the grafts are higher and 

 moe exposed, where there is no elasticity in the old 

 stem, causing all the pressure to come on the weak 

 part, and where the graft, after it has grown a whole 

 year, is liable to be carried away, it is necessary, not 

 only to continue the matting bandage, but, some- 

 times, to strengthen the joint by fastening a rod or 

 switch below it, to the old stem, and above it, to the 

 young wood. This will make -sure against all haz- 

 ards till the joining, encompassed with new bark, 

 has become as strong as any part of the tree. 



