CHAPTER X 

 GRAFTAGE— GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 



192. Graftage, which includes grafting, budding and 

 inarching, is the natural or artificial process of making a 

 part of one plant unite with and grow upon the roots of 

 another. A graft may, therefore, be considered as a 

 cutting which unites some of its tissues with those of 

 another plant or plant part with or without forming 

 either callus or roots, as always happens when cuttings 

 are developed into independent plants. 



193. As a horticultural process, graftage is of very 

 ancient origin. In his Natural History (Vol. 2 pp. 477 

 to -185) Pliny about 2,000 } ears ago, wrote about it as 

 common practice, but its methods have been kept largely 

 as trade secrets or mysteries until within the last half 

 century or so. Pliny says the art was taught by nature. 

 But he goes too far, for he declares that cherry has been 



FIG. 116— SECTIONS OF GRAFTS 



1. Plum cleft graft. 2. Bud grafts one and three years old. Note old 

 stock wood and continuous layers of young tissue. 



