THE CHESTNUT. 



77 



If the new growth or shoot to be employed as a cion 

 is slender and feeble, then the base of the cion may be of 

 two-year-old wood, leading just a bud or two on the 

 upper end of the one-year shoot. But it will seldom be 

 necessary to employ such cions in grafting the chestnut, 

 although it may occur when seeking to secure wood for 

 propagation, from very old trees which have made only 

 a feeble annual growth. 



Cleft Grafting. — This method is employed princi- 

 pally upon stocks or branches of trees too large for splic- 

 ing. The stock is first cut ofE at the 

 point where it is desirable to insert the 

 cion; then split with a knife, being 

 careful to divide it, so that the edges 

 will he kept smooth, and not rough 

 and ragged (Fig. 15). When the knife 

 blade is withdrawn, the cleft may he 

 kept open with a hard wood wedge, 

 if the stock is too large to admit of 

 opening it with the point of the knife cion. 

 when ready to insert the cion. The cion may be three 

 or four inches long, containing two or more buds ; the 

 lower end is cut wedge-shape, as shown in Pig. 16, and 

 slightly the thickest on the side to be set 

 against the bark of the stock. In stocks 

 of an inch or more in diameter, two cions, 

 one on each side, may be inserted (Pig. 

 17), and if both grow one should be cut I 

 away, else the tree, in later years, will be 

 very likely to divide or break apart at this 

 point. In stocks of an inch or less in di- I 

 ameter, one cion is sufficient, the top of 

 the stock to be cut off with an upward ^lo- "■ ^'o- ^^■ 

 slope, as shown in Pig. 18. After the cions are inserted, 

 the entire exposed surface of the wood must be covered 

 with grafting wax or waxed paper, and usually both may 



FIG. 15. 

 STOCK. 



riG. 16. 



