GRAFTING AND BUDDING. 



75 



will be removed afterwards when the graft has developed its 

 shoots. The heel, which serves at first as a prop for the young 

 shoot, is to be cut off level with the graft, as soon as the 

 young shoot shall have acquired sufficient strength to main- 

 tain itself. 



Group II. — Oroivn-Grajiing. — General Directions. 



This method is suitable to a large number of trees and 

 shrubs of various kinds. It is practised in spring, as soon 

 as the bark is easily separated from the alburnum, but the 

 precaution should be observed of preparing the stocks 

 beforehand, and heading them down three or four weeks 

 before grafting takes place. Formerly this operation was 

 very often performed in autumn, several months before the 

 usual time of grafting. When inserting the scions, the cuts, 

 which have been more or less cicatrised, should be freshened 

 with the pruning-knife. The scion branches are cut during 

 winter, before the sap begins to flow, and placed in soil or 

 sand, either in a cellar or at the north side of a wall, in a 

 vertical or a horizontal position, and either half or entirely 

 buried; the essential point is to keep them from vegetating, 

 and to see that the bark does not dry up. The scions are 

 pieces of branches from two to five inches long. The upper 

 half should have two or three eyes; the lower half is cut 

 with a flat sloping splice-cut, which should begin opposite to 

 an eye, and end in a thin point. It should be so cut as to 

 contain no pith, which would rather interfere with the process 

 of cohesion, and on the whole should be of no great thickness. 

 A small notch or shoulder cut in the upper part will serve 

 to rest the scion better on the- stock. 



The scion is inserted into the top of the stock between the 

 bark and the wood, the point being generally cut on both sides 

 to facilitate its entrance ; some operators, however, content 



