•23 



GRAFTING. 



The common way of piopagating the apple is by grafting. 

 The seeds are sown in drills ; and in due time the young 

 seedlings are taken up and grafted in the manner I have 

 already described under the head of raising trees. This 

 method is known as root, tongue, or chip grafting. 



Larger limbs of older tiees are commonly grafted by 

 what is known as cleft grafting and crown grafting. The 

 scions, V nich must be of last year's growth, are usually cut 

 in the; fall, and stored in moist sand in the cellar; but 

 hardy varieties may be cut at any time before the limbs 

 begin to grow. (grafting out of doors begins in the .spring 

 with the first warm days, and continues until the leaves 

 expand ea> ly in June. The scions having been kept dormant, 

 the best time is when the leaves in the stock are just 

 pushing out. 



In cleft grafting the bianch is first sawn off carefully, 

 so that the bark is not loosened on the stock, the stock split, 

 and a wedge insetted to hold it open, while at each side is 

 placed a scion, which should contain about three buds, and 

 be nicely whittled off with a sharp knife, a little thinner on 

 the inside than outside. Pains should be taken to have 

 the inside bark of scicm arid stock to meet. As the bark of 

 stock is generally thicker than that of the scion, the latter 

 vvill have to be placed a little deeper than the surface bark 

 of the stock. Some give the scion a little slant out, thus 

 making sure that the barks come in contact at one point at 

 least. The wedge is now taken out, and the air thoroughly 

 excluded by covering over witi: grafting wax. 



Crown grafting may be performed on still larger limbs, 

 which are not ea,sily split. The .scion is cut with a slope as 

 if for splicing, and the bark around the edge carefully 

 lifted and the .scion slipped in. As many as a dozen scions 

 may in this way be placed on one large limb. After they 

 begin to grow the most vigorous may be retained, the rest 

 removed. 



It is not always best to plant the variety you wish to 

 grow at first in the orchard. Some varieties are very slow 

 growers, and time is gained by planting some fast growing 

 variety for a stock, and afterwards top-grafting with the 

 variety I'equired, It is folly to attempt to graft old trees, 

 unless they are in a vigorous, thrifty condition. Limbs one 

 and two inches in diameter are the best foi- grafting. It 

 should take three years to completely top-graft a tree. 



ss^SBS 



