88 Grafting in the Bark. 
Another method is an application of what the French call 
oblique side grafting. It consists in making an oblique cut 
downward through the bark of the stock and 
for a distance into the wood, using a chisel 
and mallet or even a strong knife. A saw 
and knife are also used for making this cut, 
as will be described in the chapter on the 
peach. A small form of side graft has al- 
ready been shown earlier in this chapter. In 
it the scion is held in with a wax band. Some 
growers remove the top of the stock with a 
sloping cut about half an inch above the 
scion, as shown in the engraving, and wrap 
the waxed band well around and over all the 
exposed surfaces. Others do not remove the 
whole of the limb until the scion has started 
well into growth, and then they cut down and 
pare the stock and cover with a band or with a wax that will 
not run in the sun. 
Several ingenious devices have been patented by Califor- 
nians for securing uniformity in the incision in the stock and in 
shaping the scion, but it is so easy to succeed with ordinary tools 
that such inventions have never come into wide use. 
Grafting in the Bark. 
TIMES FOR GRAFTING IN CALIFORNIA. 
There is nothing particularly new about the methods or 
means employed for grafting deciduous fruit trees in California, 
but the time at which the operation can be successfully done, 
and the condition of the scion, are different from those held to 
be necessary in other climates. It is not at all requisite that the 
scions should be carefully stored away to keep them in a dor- 
mant condition, nor that the grafter should haste to do his work 
in just such a state of sap-flow in the spring-time. It was early 
discovered that grafting could be successfully done with grow- 
ing scions, and that scions could be cut from one tree and set 
in another nearly at any time the grafter desired. Grafting is 
therefore possible much later in the season than is prescribed 
elsewhere, and it is also possible to begin earlier. In one of the 
largest apple and pear orchards in the State it is common to 
graft in December. The absence of freezing weather saves the 
graft from injury. As our trees start their flow of sap early, and 
often when the ground is too wet for comfortable orchard work, 
it is the practise of many to get their grafting and pruning done 
before the heavy mid-winter rains begin. The practise of most 
growers is, however, to conform somewhat nearly to traditional 
methods, to do most of the grafting in the spring months, and 
