194 



FIELD, FOREST AND FARM 



Cleft-grafting 



good pears. The course to pursue is as follows. 

 We cut off entirely the upper part of the wild pear 

 tree, trimming the cut with our pruning-knife so 

 that there are no ragged edges, since these would not 

 scar over readily and might become 

 the seat of a far-reaching decay. If 

 the trunk is of moderate size and is 

 to receive but one graft, it is cut a 

 little obliquely with a small level sur- 

 face on the upper edge, as shown in 

 the picture. In the middle of this 

 horizontal facet a split is made to the 

 depth of about six centimeters. That done, we take 

 one of the grafts set aside as already indicated, and 

 we cut it so as to leave only two or three buds, of 

 which the topmost one should be at the tip of the 

 branch. Then, just under the lowest bud we whittle 

 the end of the graft into the shape of a knife-blade, 

 letting the bud stand just above the back or dull edge 

 of the blade. For greater stability when the graft is 

 put in place, a narrow inverted ledge is cut at the 

 top of the blade on both sides. A glance at the pic- 

 ture will show you all these little details. Finally, 

 the graft is slipped into the cleft of the stock, bark 

 exactly meeting bark, wood meeting wood. The 

 whole is brought tightly together by binding, and 

 the wounds are covered with grafting mastic, which 

 may be bought already prepared. If this mastic is 

 lacking we can use what is known in the country as 

 Saint Fiacre's ointment, a sort of paste made of 

 clay, or rather a mixture of clay and cows' dung, 



