GRAFTING AND BUDDING-. 



21 



together over the fire in an iron pot, and the composition 

 should be allowed to cool before it is nsed. Practice makes it 

 easy to jndge of the proper proportions of the ingredients ; 

 the pitch tends to thicken the composition, the snet to make 

 it lighter, the resin imparts dryness to it, and the bees-wax 

 gives it oiliness. The following mixture is in high repute at 

 the establishments of MM. Andre Leroy, of Angers, and 

 Baltet Freres, of Troyes : — First, melt together, resin 21bs. 12 

 ounces, Burgundy pitch 1 lb. 11 ounces ; at the same time melt 

 separately, suet 9 ounces. Pour the suet, when thoroughly 

 melted, into the first mixture, stirring it well while doing so. 

 Then add 18 ounces of red ochre, dropping it in gradually in 

 small portions, and stirring the whole up for a good while. 

 Whatever composition may be used, it should always be 

 unctuous, easily worked, and free from acridity, and is best 

 applied lukewarm, rather cool than hot, and when of a con- 

 sistency approaching the liquid rather than the solid. It is 

 brought into this condition with the help of a small portable 

 stove, heated like a warm bath, or with a spirit-lamp, or by 

 any of the common methods. It is applied with a small paint- 

 brush, or a stick with a rag wrapped round the end, or, better 

 still, with a wooden spatula. The warm mastic is an economical 

 kind for large operations, and is preferable to the cold mastic 

 for autumn grafting, as the frost has been found to have less 

 effect upon it. 



Cold Mastic. 



The inconveniences that always attend the use of warm 

 compositions, and the trouble of making them, have brought 

 very much into fashion cold mastics, which soften under 

 the heat of the hands, or remain unctuous from the nature 

 of their composition. Up to the present time, no cold mastic 

 can compete with that of M. Lhomme-Lefort, manufactured 

 by his son at Belleville, Paris. This mastic is sold in tin boxes, 



