The Story-Book of the Fields 



is fixed with bandages, and the wounds are 

 covered over with grafting-wax, which is 

 bought in shops, and kept in place with a few 

 rags. This wrapping preserves the stump 

 from the air, which would dry it up. In time 

 the wounds are healed, and the branch unites 

 its bark and its wood with the bark and the 

 wood of the amputated stem. Finally the 

 shoots of the graft, fed by the stock, develop 

 into branches, and in a few years the head 

 of the wild pear tree will be replaced by one 

 that has been cultivated, yielding pears 

 similar to those on the tree that provided the 

 graft. 



During the operation of grafting, numerous 

 shoots will not fail to appear on the stock. 

 What is to be done with the growths to which 

 they give rise ? Evidently they must be sup- 

 pressed, for they would use up the sap in- 

 tended for the graft. But this suppression 

 must be effected with discretion. We must 

 not forget that the most active cause of the 

 ascent of the sap is the evaporation from the 

 leaves ; so that until the graft has developed 

 its shoots and unfolded its leaves, it is well 

 to respect the young growths of the stock. 

 They are real helpers, drawing up by their 

 foliage the juices absorbed by the roots. But 



204 



