THE GARDENER. 



45 



" Grafting Clay may be made from any smooth 

 clay, or adhesive clayey yellow loam, or brick-earth, 

 mixed with one-third, or, according to some, one -half 

 of cow-dung, free from litter, excepting that of hay, 

 and if it contain none of the latter, some fine hay must 

 be beaten up with the mixture ; the hay answers the 

 same purpose as hair in plaster. A mixture of clay and 

 horse-dung is preferred by some. The fact is, that 

 any composition will answer that will exclude the air, 

 retain some degree of moisture, and at the same time 

 prove not injurious to the barks- of the stock and scion 

 which it surrounds, 



" Grafting rvax^ a compound of pitch, rosin, 

 bees'-wax, hogs'-lard, and turpentine, has had a great 

 reputation as a means of fixing a scion to the stock, 

 but it is liable to two serious objections. In the first 

 place it does not adhere and exclude air unless both 

 stock and scion are perfectly dry when it is used ; se- 

 condly, the winds in March, the general period of 

 grafting, are excessively drying, and were it not for 

 the moisture absorbed from the clay the scion would 

 frequently be shrivelled, and dried up before it had 

 time to vegetate ; but resinous substances do not per- 

 mit of any similar absorption of beneficial moisture. 



*' Inarching is a species of grafting, the success of 

 which depends on the principles above explained. It 

 \ is sometimes called grafting by approach, because in 

 performing the operation the branches or stems of two 

 contiguously growing plants are made to approach 

 and unite ; and this union is effected on the same 

 principles as that of whip -grafting. Corresponding 

 slices are taken off*, a small slit being made upwards 

 in the part that is to form the head, and another cor- 

 respondingly downwards in the stock ; being joined, 

 the wounded parts are tied together, and covered with 

 moss or grafting-clay. When properly united, that 

 which is to form the top is by degrees severed from its 



