GRAFTING BY DETACHED SCIONS. 



289 



one side of the stock. The ball of clay which envelopes the graft should be 

 about an inch thick on every side, and should extend for nearly an inch below 

 the bottom of the graft, to more than an inch over the top of the stock, 

 compressing and finishing the whole into a kind of oval or egg-shape form, 

 closing it in every part, so as completely to exclude air, light, wet, or cold. 

 The ball of clay will not be so apt to drop off, if the matting over which 

 it is placed is rendered a fitting nucleus for solid clay, by previously 

 smearing it over in a comparatively liquid state. This envelope of 

 clay, with the earthing up, preserves the graft in a uniform temperature, 

 and prevents the rising of the sap from being checked by cold days or 

 nights ; and, therefore, earthing up ought always to be adopted, in the 

 case of grafts in the open garden, which are difficult to succeed. The 

 next best resource is a ball of moss over the clay, or of some dry material, 

 such as hay, tied on from within an inch of the top of the scion to the sur- 

 face of the ground, so as to act as thatch in excluding rain and wind, and 

 retaining heat and moisture. When the scion and the stock are both of 

 the same thickness, or when they are of kinds that do not unite freely, the 

 tongue is sometimes omitted; but in that case, 

 more care is required in tying. In this, and also 

 in other cases, the stock is not shortened down to 

 the graft ; but an inch or two with a bud at its 

 upper extremity is left to insure the rising of the 

 sap to the scion, as in fig. 194 ; and after the lat- 

 ter is firmly established, the part of the stock left 

 is cut off close above the scion, as shown in fig. 

 .197. When the stock is not headed down till the 

 scion is about to be put on, it is essentially neces- 

 sary to leave it longer than usual, in order to give 

 vent to the rising sap, which might otherwise ex- 

 ude about the scion, and occasion its decay. In 

 the case of shoots having much pith, such as those 

 of the rose, the scion is often put on the stock 

 without being tongued into it, as in fig. 198, in 

 shoots on, and the heel of the which the scion in the one case, 6, is without 

 stock cut off. ^ j^^gj, extremity, and is therefore less 



likely to succeed than c, which has a bud in that position. Sometimes a 

 notch is cut on the scion immediately under a bud, and this notch is made 

 to rest on the top of the stock, as in fig. 199; 

 and in such cases, when the scion and stock 

 are about the same diameter, the summit of 

 the latter is certain of being healed over the 

 first season. 



652. Splice-grafting the peach. In splice- 

 grafting the shoots of peaches, nectarines, 

 and apricots, and other tender shoots with 

 large pith, it is found of advantage to have 

 a quarter of an inch of two-years old wood 

 at the lower extremity of the scion (fig. 200, 

 a,) and to have the stock cut with a dove- a shoulder. 

 tail notch (&). In the case of the fruit-trees mentioned, the buds of the 

 scion on the back and front are removed, leaving two on each side, and a 



Fig. 197. The scion with its young 



Fig. 198. Splice-grafting 

 without a tongue. 



