290 



GRAFTING BY DETACHED SCIONS. 



Fig. 201. ClefU 

 grafting. 



leader ; and when these have grown six or eight inches, their extremities are 

 pinched off with the finger and thumb ; by which means each shoot will 

 throw out two others, and thus produce in 

 autumn a finely-shaped tree, with ten 

 branches. Such trees will bear two or three 

 fruits the second year from the graft. — Gard. 

 Mag., vol. iii. p. 150. 

 a 653. Cleft-grafting, fig. 201, requires less 

 care than splice-grafting, and seems to have 

 been the mode in most general use in former 

 ages. It is now chiefly adopted when the 

 scion is a good deal larger than the stock, and 

 more especially when grafting stocks of con- 

 siderable height, or heading down old trees. 

 The head of the stock being cut over hori- 

 zontally with a saw (fig. 202), a cleft is made 

 Fig. 200. Splice- in [{^ from two to three inches in length, with a stout knife 



grafting the peach. ^j^.^^j^ splitting-knife (fig. 203). The cleft 



being kept open by the knife or chisel, or the pick-end of the splitting-knife, 



one or two scions are inserted, 

 according to the diameter of the 

 stock ; the scions being cut into 

 long wedge shapes, in a double 

 sense, and inserted into the slit 

 Fig. 202. Bow saw for cutting off branches of trees, prepared for them, when the 



knife or chisel being witlidrawn, the stock closes firmly upon the scions, and 



holds them 



fast. The 1 1/ 



graft is then 

 tied and 

 clayed in the 

 usual man- ' 



ner and the Splitting. knife and opening pick for using in cleft-grafting. 



whole is frequently covered with moss. When the stock is an inch or 

 more in diameter, three or more scions are frequently 

 put on at equal distances from each other round the cir- 

 cumference, and this is called crown-grafting. Cleft- 

 grafting with one scion is in general not a good mode, 

 because if the split has been made right through the 

 stock, it is in danger of being injured by the weather 

 before it is covered with wood by the scion. If the 

 cleft is made only on one side of the stock, the evil is 

 mitigated ; but there still remains the tendency of the 

 scion in its growth to protrude the wood all on one side. 

 In crown-grafting headed-down old trees, the scion is 

 generally chosen of two-years old wood, and it is some- 

 Fig. 204. Rind-grafting, times inserted between the inner bark and the alburnum, 

 as in what is called rind-grafting (fig. 204). In rind-grafting, great care 

 must be taken to open the bark of the stock without bruising it, which is 

 done by the spatula end of the grafting-knife. The scion is prepared with- 

 out a tongue, and inserted so that its wood may be in contact with the albur- 



