20 TREATISE ON 



The cutting edge of a pruning knife, or of a billhook if the stock is a large one, is 

 positioned on the diameter of the cut. The stock is split vertically by hitting the top of the 

 instrument with a mallet. The cleft is split an inch & a half or two inches down, & if the 

 stock is a large one, a wedge is used. The inside of the cleft is cleaned & smoothed if 

 fibers are present. 



2°. The large end of the graft A (its wood should be two years old) is trimmed at 

 an angle, an inch or an inch & a half in length. A couple of small contractions usually are 

 cut above the top of the angle & care is taken that the side facing the center of the stock is 

 slightly thinner than the one that faces the bark. The graft is cut back to two, three, or 

 four buds, depending on the strength of the stock. 



3°. To set the graft, the cleft in a small stock is opened up with the point of a 

 pruning knife, & in larger ones with a wooden wedge, or with an iron tool well known to 

 grafters. It consists of a bar or handle with a wedge at each end. The angled end of the 

 graft is inserted into the cleft in the stock so that the phloem of the graft makes contact 

 exactly with that of the stock, or that the intermediate layer between the wood & the bark 

 of the stock is precisely opposite the intermediate layer between the wood and the bark of 

 the graft. Contact between the phloems, on which the success of the graft depends, 

 doesn't necessarily result from matching up the exterior surfaces of the two barks, since 

 the bark of the graft & that of the stock are rarely the same thickness. 



Some insert the graft Z into the cleft obliquely so that the point of its wedge 

 penetrates slightly & the top remains outside, with the result that the phloems cross each 

 other and at least make contact at the point 



