GRAFTING- AND BUDDING. 



157 



and, at the same time, any defects where mastic has been 

 applied should be made good. This first inspection will also 

 be a proper time for replacing grafts that have missed, and 

 or removing the paper caps and pads of moss which were 

 placed on the grafts to protect them from drought. 



Heading doivn the Stock. 



Plants grafted by cleft-grafting, crown-grafting, or in- 

 laying are always amputated beforehand. Trees grafted 

 by approach both have the stock headed down and the 

 scion separated from the parent tree, with the view of 

 concentrating the sap in the stock and the scion when both 

 are united. These operations have been fully described at 

 page 29. Stocks grafted laterally — shield-budded, veneered, 

 side-grafted, or flute-grafted — may be headed down either at 

 once or after the winter. If the graft is made with a pushing 

 bud — that is, made early enough in the season to allow the scion 

 time to shoot well before winter — the heading down of 

 the-stock should be commenced a week after grafting by 

 cutting off the ends of the principal branches and the extremity 

 of the leading shoot. A week after this, they are to be cut 

 still shorter, and so on successively in proportion as the scion 

 developes itself, till a distance of four inches above the graft 

 is reached. A few shoots should be left on the stump to 

 attract the sap to the graft. If, on the other hand, the graft 

 is made with a dormant bud — that is, if the scion is not 

 required to shoot before the following spring — we wait until 

 winter is over, and then amputate the stock, at a single 

 -cutting, four inches above the graft. When there are grafts 

 on several branches, each branch is to be cut in the same way 

 as if it were a grafted stem. The stump above the graft is 

 often called the "heel." It may be cut shorter than four inches 

 if the scion be furnished with doubtful or feeble eyes. 



