VIII PROPAGATION in?, 



by heat, but kept in the winter sleep. The stocks, 

 however, should be just a little forwarder, by having 

 been brought into the house a short time before, 

 not actually started, but ready to grow at once on 

 the application of heat. 



The method of grafting usually employed is the 

 easiest and simplest — whip-grafting, which is an 

 ordinary plain splice, such as a fisherman would 

 make to his broken rod. The stock is cut straight 

 across with scissors an inch or two above the soil 

 in the pot, and is then sliced up on one side only 

 with a sharp knife to form the stock half of the 

 splice. 



For the scion only one bud is used. The shoot is 

 snipped into little bits, by cutting across as close as 

 possible above each bud. This will leave, below 

 each, an inch or more of wood, which should then 

 be sliced up to form the other part of the splice. 

 Stock and scion should be as nearly as possible of 

 the same diameter, but it will not matter if the 

 stock is somewhat the bigger of the two. 



The essentials of grafting are : — that on one side 

 at least the inner bark of stock and scion should 

 exactly meet, that flow of sap in the stock should 

 take place at once, and that air should be excluded 

 till the scion has made some growth. 



To meet the first of these necessary points is very 

 important. Of course the two parts to be brought 

 together will not fit exactly once in a hundred times, 

 and the only care therefore should be that the scion 

 should fit on one side of the stock and not be placed 

 in the middle. 



To prevent its slipping during the tying is rather 

 a difficult task till one has seen "how it's done." 



