GRAFTING AND BUDDING. 



105 



that the top of the cut part may be a little below the level of 

 the top of the stock, and the bark should coincide with that 

 of the stock on one side at least. A prop or a stake will be 

 necessary to support the graft for a year or two. It is 

 bandaged with wool, and the cuts exposed to the air must be 

 covered with mastic ; a paper cap is placed over the graft, 

 and kept there until the scion has began to sprout. The 

 stock will not afterwards require any clipping, disbudding, or 

 pinching of its branches. The Forest of Fontainebleau 

 affords examples of Pinus Laricio which were thus grafted 

 on Pinus sylvestris forty years ago, and the trees are 

 as fine as if they had been raised from seed. For twenty 

 years past M. Jules Barotte, of Brachay (Haute-IMarne), 

 has converted by this method thousands of Pinus sylvestris 

 into P. austriaca and P. Laricio. He operates in the open 

 ground or in the forest, grafts the subjects on young 

 leading shoots at the height of two or three feet from the 

 ground, and never covers his grafts with paper caps, as they 

 do in the nurseries. 



Cleft -Grafting in ForJcings. 

 In this method the scion is inserted into the stock at the 

 point where a branch forks from the stem, or where two 

 branches fork with each other. It is easy to produce this 

 forking by a suitable pruning of the stem or branch at any 

 time, or by making an incision over a bud, which will develope 

 into a branch and form a forking. The scion is cut into a 

 triangular wedge and inserted into the stock at the junction 

 of the two branches ; these branches are to be gradually 

 shortened as the graft develops itself. Conifers, the beech, 

 the vine, and the oak, are the kinds which succeed best under 

 this method. 



Fork -Grafting of Conifers* 

 Amongst resinous trees, the kinds which ramify on the 



