200 FIELD, FOREST AND FARM 



transverse cut above the bud and another below; 

 then, holding the branch in one hand and the graft- 

 ing-knife in the other, as the picture shows, we re- 

 move the strip of bark lying between these two cuts 

 and delimited laterally by the line gg'g" and its 

 opposite, in figure F. This strip, which we call the 

 shield, is shown by itself in H. The leaf that shel- 

 tered the bud in its axil has been removed, but the 

 base of the stem of this leaf has been left and will 

 be useful later for taking hold of the shield and 

 handling it more conveniently. The shield must be 

 cut away without any tearing and in such a manner 

 that no sap-wood is left clinging to the bark. The 

 latter must be perfectly intact, especially in its inner 

 layers, the seat of vital activities. Finally, the bud 

 should have its proper complement of young, green- 

 ish wood, which constitutes the germ, the very heart 

 of the bud. Should this germ be removed by un- 

 skilful manipulation, the bud would have to be 

 thrown away, for the graft would surely fail. 



"The next step is to make a double incision in 

 the bark in the shape of a T, penetrating as far as 

 the wood but without injuring it. With the spatula 

 of the grafting-knife the two lips of the wound are 

 raised a little while the bud with its shield is taken 

 up by the piece of leaf-stem attached to it and in- 

 serted between the bark and the wood. All that 

 now remains to be done is to draw the lips of the 

 little wound together and bind the whole with some 

 sort of material sufficiently pliant and elastic not 

 to compress and finally strangle the bud as it de- 



