96 AMERICAN POMOLOGY. 



duce a fine salable tree at once, or in one season. This 

 is a very good plan with some of the slender and strag- 

 gling varieties, such as are called poor growers, and which 

 are unprofitable to the nurseryman when propagated in the 

 usual manner. Grafting or budding upon such stocks is 

 also resorted to very often, when it i desirable at once to 

 furnish large, or salable trees of new varieties. 



In grafting upon a large stock, or upon the tops of an 

 old tree, the process called cleft grafting is generally 

 used. Here, as in all forms of this process, the object to 

 be attained, is the co-aptation of the inner bark of both 

 stock and scion. The latter is held in its place by the 

 clasping of the former, and is also covered by some mate- 

 rial that is pliant, and which will exclude the air and 

 moisture. 



The advantages of stock-grafting are the changing of an 

 old tree from bad to good fruit, which is produced in a few 

 years ; it is also applicable to large stocks, and produces an 

 immediate result, making salable trees in one year. It is 

 also desirable for some poor-growing varieties, which are 

 slow in making a tree from the ground ; but it has its dis 

 advantages also. The nurseryman must wait until his 

 stocks have been grown one or more years in the nursery, 

 his trees will sometimes be larger than he desires, they 

 will be apt to have the mark of the grafting as a blemish 

 upon the stalk sometimes during the life of the tree; 

 and worse than all, he is restricted to a brief period in the 

 spring, when he is 'obliged to perform the operation 

 out of doors, and often in very unpleasant weather. 



As a result of all the discussions upon this subject, it is 

 found that stock-grafting, whether at the collar or at some 



