NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 
a budding-knife, a small can for the wax, with 
a paint brush to put it on the graft-joint, a 
stock of small strips of white cloth. Other 
and more elaborate grafting devices can be 
bought, but Mr. Burbank considers these 
sufficient, too elaborate an outfit being a 
hindrance rather than a help. 
The wax he recommends should be made of 
four pounds of resin to one pound of beeswax, 
with enough linseed oil to make it work well. 
This, when melted up together and allowed 
to cool, forms a cake from which enough can 
be broken at any time for the work in hand, 
and the rest will keep indefinitely. The piece 
which is broken off should be heated until it is 
warm enough to flow easily. It should not be 
too soft or it will run in the warm sun, nor 
too hard or it will crack. The object is to 
protect the union of the graft and the tree 
by means of the wax and the enclosing 
bandage of cloth, and a very little experience 
will show when the wax is of just the right 
consistency. It is well, if there is considerable 
grafting to be done, to keep the can or pot 
containing the wax over a lamp or small oil- 
stove in order to hold it at the proper con- 
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