OP GEAFTING. 



335 



run, in which ease we proceed as follows. Before amputating the 

 branch or trunk, fls upon the most suitable place for grafting, and 

 with a saw shorten back to that point, regulating and smoothing the 

 wound with a knife ; then mark out the place for each scion, about an 

 inch and -a quarter apart, always choosing those places where the bark 

 is the most regular ; but as the latter is always coarse and tough on , 

 such trees, cut it lengthwise for about an inch in length, taking care 

 that the blade of the grafting-knife does not penetrate the alburnum. 

 As this instrument is frequently insufB-cient for raising the bark so as 

 to make way for the scion, make use of a small piece of hard wood, cut 

 in the form of the scion, such as the latter is represented (Fig. LXIII. a) ; 

 and in introducing the point between the bark and alburnum, we must 

 always be careful to bruise the latter as little as possible. In order to 

 avoid this, the instrument should not go down farther than the end of 

 the cut made in the bark, thus effect- 

 ing merely a slight entry for the 

 scion, which, it will be observed, is 

 cut with a long slant, and a small 

 shoulder at the upper part of the slope, 

 opposite to an eye. The scion thus 

 prepared is inserted in the opening 

 commenced for it, and gently pushed 

 down till its shoulder rests on the top 

 of the stock. The operation is the 

 same with all the other scions. The 

 whole being placed, they are secured 

 by a split Osier firmly fixed to the 

 stock, and brought two or three times 

 round, and as near to the amputated 

 part as is possible. 



We employ this mode of grafting, 

 in some extraordinary cases, without 

 cutting off the top of the stock, when 

 we wish to place one or more scions 

 along a stem destitute of lateral 

 branches. By means of a sharp chisel, 

 three-quarters of an inch broad, make 



in the stock a transverse cut the whole breadth of the ohisel(rig. LXIV.) 

 and about as deep as the thickness of a finger ; above this; cut out with 

 the same t»ol a somewhat triangular notch, one and a-half to two 

 inches in length, with its depth reduced to nothing at the top, but 

 increasing as the chisel penetrates towards the bottom of the first 

 cut, as is represented at o. The object of this notch is to stop a smaU 

 portion of the ascending sap, in order that it may be absorbed by the 

 scion. In putting on the latter, place it as directed in the preceding case. 



LXIV. 



