PROPAGATION 3 



he can grow cabbage; but the men who are spend- 

 ing a lifetime in this highly specialized branch of 

 horticulture can evidently do the thing to better 

 advantage. 



For root-grafting the roots should be secured 

 in November or early December. The cions, 

 chosen from reliable trees of the desired varieties, 

 should be cut about the same time. In cool, moist • 

 storage these cions will keep for two or 

 three months without damage. They 

 should be clean, straight shoots of one- 

 year-old wood only, firm and well 

 matured. 



The cion may be united with the 

 stock by any one of several methods of 

 grafting. The two members may be 

 simply slanted off — the stock at its 

 upper end, the cion at its lower end — ■ 

 with a clean cut, and the two pieces 

 spliced together and tied with soft cloth 

 or grafting twine. (Figure 2.) This is 

 what is known as a splice-graft. 

 FIG. 2 jjjg usual method, however, is the whip- 



SPLICE-GRAFT j.^ , ' ^ i • i • • f 



graft, or tongue-graft, which is simply 

 an improvement in splicing, whereby the two parts hold 

 together more firmly and more quickly grow together 

 when stored or planted. The graf tsman takes the cion 

 in his left hand and with a sharp knife cuts the 

 slanting lower end, just as in splice-grafting. Then, 

 reversing the cion, he cuts a thin tongue, as shown 

 in the illustration (Figure 3). The important con- 

 sideration here, is to cut, not split, the wood, leav- 

 ing a strong stiff tongue, which will tightly grip 

 the similar tongue on the stock. The stock is cut 

 in precisely the same way. 



