66 



make a business of supplying them. The method they 

 follow is simple enough, though tedious. It is a form of 

 double grafting, and is not likely to be popular among 

 private growers. The operator picks out healthy portions 

 of the roots of the resistent variety, about a span long and 

 ~ of an inch thick. Upon these, scions of the same resistent 

 apple are grafted, taking care that both root and shoot are 

 of equal diameter. The English graft, so called, or whip- 

 graft with a tongue, succeeds best. To utilize pieces of 

 root of smaller diameter, there is an ingenious device which 

 might be called spur-grafting. This is easily understood 

 from the figure, which, with some of the above details is 

 taken from an excellent resume* of apple-culture by A. H. 

 Benson in the N.v.W. Agricultural Gazette, vol. v. p. 314. 

 (May, 1894). 



Figure 7. Details for Root -grafting. 



A cut is made obliquely upwards near the scion, reaching 

 almost to the central pith. The root-piece is cut to a double 

 bevel of the same length as the cut in the scion, and in- 

 serted so as to match exactly its outside edge. In this, as 

 in the former case, the junctions are to be carefully tied 

 with raffia, slips of cotton, torn instead of cut from the 

 the piece, or worsted. No waxing is to be applied. The 

 grafts are set out in nursery beds with the junction well 

 below the surface, and great care is taken by mulching 

 and other means to prevent drying out. The surfaces soon 

 unite. The strongest and best placed bud on the graft is 

 .allowed to develop into a shoot, and all the rest are rubbed 



