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THE AUT OF 



there be a deficiency of scions, the branches at the centre and 

 top should first be grafted ; the rest may be grafted in summer 

 or the following spring on their young shoots, having been 

 previously amputated with the others. With thick trunks 

 crown-grafting is preferable, as, besides allowing the insertion 

 of a greater number of scions, it does not require the stock 

 to be cleft. If the cortical layers of the stock are too old 

 and wrinkled, we employ oblique cleft -grafting (see p. 97). 



When thick trees are grafted, props should be fastened to 

 the stumps, to which the young shoots of the graft are sub- 

 sequently to be tied, in order to save them from being broken, 

 off by the wind (page 160). The bark of the stock should be 

 cleaned and whitewashed, and the soil around the roots re- 

 newed. These last operations should be performed in winter 

 at the same time when the branches to be grafted are provi- 

 sionally amputated. Very frequently the pruning of the 

 branches and roots is done a year beforehand, to moderate 

 the vigour of the tree, and prepare it to support the fresh graft- 

 ings. Low standards are treated in the same way. Subjects 

 trained as vases, bushes, fans, cordons, palmettes, or chande- 

 liers, pyramids, and columns, grown in the open or against 

 walls, are regrafted on the stem and principal branches, suffi- 

 ciently high to preserve the outline of the form, but at the 

 same time low enough to give the renewed part greater extent. 

 Bushes which have been thinned by the suppression of useless 

 or too crowded branches should be grafted at the forkings of 

 the branches. Yases should be grafted on the branches which 

 form the outline of the subject, and at the same height. It is 

 also easy, by means of regrafting, to modify the outline or the 

 dimensions of the vase. The fan is grafted on its principal 

 branches, and the amputation of the branches is calculated, 

 so that when shortened they may continue to form the skeleton 

 of the fan. 



