GRAFTING 107 



side of the scion. These two parallel lines are cut 

 with a sharp knife if the bark of the stock is thin 

 enough or with a carpenter's chisel and mallet for 

 thick hard bark. The tongue of bark thus marked 

 out with knife or chisel is then pried free and the 

 scion slipped into the slot so made. The full length 

 of the tongue of bark may then be folded back again 

 to help hold the scion in its place or half the tongue 

 of bark may be cut away and the remaining half 

 replaced over the scion. (Figs. 7 and n.) 



The proximal bark slot is made in the same way 

 excepting that we must cut an approach to the wood 

 beneath the bark. (Figs. 12 and 13.) A transverse 

 cut is first made through the bark, reaching down to 

 the wood. A slanting longitudinal cut carried down 

 to the transverse cut in the bark follows and the seg- 

 ment of bark thus freed is pried loose and removed. 

 Parallel lines of the width of the scion are marked 

 out from the transverse cut in the same way as when 

 they are made from the end of a limb (Fig. 14). 

 The scion is inserted into the slot so made. For bark 

 slot grafting we choose the flattest part that is to be 

 found on the stock. The reason is that the shaped 

 scion has a flat cut and we wish to have it fit the 

 stock wood as flatly as possible in order to avoid 

 interstices into which sap might run and collect. 



The so-called "slip bark method" employed by Mr. 

 Riehl had this disadvantage of leaving large inter- 

 stices. The slip bark method consisted in making a 

 longitudinal slit in the bark of a stock and then slip- 

 ping in a scion between bark and wood. When look- 



