BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING 



SIDE-GRAFTING 



Another good method sometimes employed, espe- 

 cially with plums, is side-grafting. There are some 

 variations of this method, but the one herewith 

 described is as good as any — perhaps the best. 



The stocks are not dug, but are grafted in the 

 rows where they are grown. This item is especially 

 applicable to plum grafting, for one can nearly 

 always grow his own plum stocks as well as to buy 



FIG.^ 4— SIDE-GRAFT 



them. The work may be done in the autumn or 

 very early in the spring. Cions are secured and 

 kept just as for whip-grafting. When the graft is 

 to be made, however, the cion is cut to a long, thin 

 wedge at its lower end. The stock is cut with 

 a slanting stroke downward, as near the surface of 

 the ground as practicable, the left hand of the 

 graftsman grasping the stem of the young seedling 

 tree and bending it slightly away from the cut. 

 The wedged end of the cion is then inserted in this.^ 



