418 
FAMILIAR LESSONS ON PRACTICAL GARDENING. 
a cool, shady place ; for the stock should al- 
ways be a little in advance of the graft, as 
respects growth, at the time of the operation. 
The grafts may be taken off any time during 
the resting, or winter season, provided they 
can be kept cool and moist, so as neither to 
start into growth nor shrivel. The well- 
ripened, medium-sized, one-year-old shoots 
should be chosen, and the grafts (used about 
six inches long) should be taken from the 
lower and best ripened end of these shoots ; 
healthy shoots should also be selected. 
A variety of whip-grafting, sometimes more 
easy of application than that just explained, is 
thus performed : — First, head down the stock 
by a nearly horizontal cut ; then pare one side 
of it for a length of about two inches, and just 
into the wood, making the cut rather deeper 
into the wood at the top than at the bottom of 
the cut ; then pare down the lower end of the 
graft, by an oblique cut corresponding in 
length with the cut on the stock, commencing 
shallow towards the top of the graft, and much 
deeper — nearly through — at the bottom. The 
tongueing, adjustment, tying, and claying, are 
done just as in the other case. 
Grafting clay is common clay worked up to 
the consistence of stiff mortar, all stones and 
lumps being removed, and a considerable 
portion of green cowdung and chopped hay, 
or the hair used by bricklayers, mixed with it, 
in order that it may keep mok<t and hang to- 
gether : it is essential that it be thoroughly 
well mixed up. It is put on with both hands ; 
but being very adhesive, dry ashes are occa- 
sionally dusted over the hands, to enable the 
operator to shape it to the form and position 
required. 
A very useful application of grafting con- 
sists in working an established fruit-tree of an 
inferior kind, with scions of a superior variety 
of the same kind of fruit. Such trees soon 
come into bearing, and the process is much to 
be preferred before destroying old trees of bad 
varieties, and planting young ones of choice 
kinds. A different mode of grafting, called 
cleft grafting, is often practised in these cases; 
but the method already described is preferable. 
The trees should be cut in, almost to the trunk, 
the head being wholly removed : young branches 
will be produced, a few of which, well-placed, 
are to be selected to form the skeleton of the 
future head, and the rest removed, the se- 
lected shoots being grafted as close as possible 
to their origin, as soon as they acquire suf- 
ficient diameter, which in most cases will be 
after making one year's growth. When cleft- 
grafting is practised, the scions are placed at 
once into the main branches, after they have 
been headed off; but if they are large, as is 
generally the case, the union is never so com- 
plete as when the graft is attached to a part 
which comes nearer to its own diameter. If 
the tree to be headed off have any small 
branches, they may be at once grafted without 
waiting for the growth of new shoots. Such 
shoots might be induced to grow in readiness 
for grafting, if the main limbs were slightly 
cut round, a year or two before they were 
entirely removed. This plan is as economical 
of time as the method of cleft-grafting (which 
at once substitutes grafts for the lopped 
branches), and is much preferable in the end. 
Budding. — This operation is performed by 
removing a bud, with bark attached, from one 
tree, and fixing it below the bark of another. 
It is performed in the midst of the growing 
season, it being essential to success in budding 
that the shoots should be full of sap, so that 
the bark may separate easily from the wood. 
The bud is to be inserted on a smooth part of 
the stock, free from knots, and close below a 
bud; the north side of the stock should, if 
possible, be selected, so that it may be shel- 
tered from the sun during the hotter part of 
the day. The operation is best performed 
with a proper budding-knife, which has a thin, 
wedge-shaped handle, the end of which is 
required to raise up the edges of the bark with- 
out injury or bruising. Shield or T budding 
is the most common mode, and is also the most 
desirable for general purposes. It is thus 
performed:— having a shoot with a supply of 
buds in readiness, and having determined where 
the bud is to be inserted on the stock, proceed 
to make a longitudinal incision, about a couple 
of inches long, or rather more, and just deep 
enough to cut through the bark, but not into 
the wood : at the upper end of this 
make a horizontal cut, an inch or so 
in length (a). Then cut off a bud 
from the shoot, selecting one from 
about the middle, which is well ri- 
pened and plump ; take the shoot in 
the left hand, and make a cut from 
below upwards, commencing about 
an inch beneath the bud, to about an inch 
above it, and passing nearly half way through 
the shoot, taking out wood and all. The leaf 
is to be cut off, but the leaf stalk retained ; it 
serves as a convenient handle (c). 
Next remove the wood cut out with 
the bud ; but this is a delicate ope- 
ration, and it is quite indispensable 
that the bark should be in a con- 
dition to separate readily. Hold the 
bud on the forefinger of the left hand, 
with the cut surface upwards, placing 
the thumb upon it ; then, with the 
thumb-nail of the right hand, gently 
disengage the lower end of the bark 
of the shield from the wood ; and 
then, removing the thumb of the left hand, 
the wood will probably come away, leaving 
a 
