FRUIT TREES. Chap. I. 25 



This method has its advantages. 1°. To push the bud graft up between the wood and the 

 bark of the stock, one's finger, or the handle of the pruning knife, is pressed only against 

 the stalk of the bud & there is no risk of wearing down or bruising the bud or of breaking 

 or tearing the stalks of the leaves as there would be in the conventional method if the 

 graft doesn't slide in easily. 2°. If two bud grafts are placed on opposite sides of a single 

 stock, one by this method and the other by the conventional method, the horizontal 

 incisions will be at alternate positions, and the stock will be harmed less than if they were 

 situated opposite one another with the bark cut almost all the way around at the same 

 point. 



Bud grafts, especially those developing right away, sometimes are dried out by 

 the sun. To avoid this problem, a piece of paper is fastened over them. 



Grafting must be done in good weather, since grafts that have been wet by the rain 

 are liable to fail. 



If there's lots of grafting to be done, the work can be shared by two: one person 

 trims & prepares the grafts, the other works on the stocks. If there are three, one makes 

 the incisions in the stock, another lifts & inserts the bud grafts, & the third ties the 

 ligatures. 



When the bud grafts have grown a shoot seven to eight inches long, it's a good 

 idea to pinch it off at the fourth or fifth leaf so that three or four branches grow out of the 

 leaf axils, which will be very advantageous for the shape & for the first pruning of the 

 trees. For standard and half-standard trees that should develop from the shoot of the graft, 

 the shoot is pinched off only when it has reached the proper height. 



From the time that the grafts have begun to sprout until the trees are actually 

 transplanted, the nursery must be periodically inspected, as much to do the necessary 

 cultivation & tilling as to cut off branches 



