PEOPAGATION. 
27 
Saddle grafting (Fig. 8) is one of the strongest, most secure, and scien¬ 
tific methods of any. It also succeeds well, presenting a large uniting 
surface. It is easy to cut the stock into a wedge shape, but rather more 
difiicult to cut the scion into a good fit for the saddle. The latter is 
essential to success. Properly performed, however, saddle grafting is 
worth any extra trouble in its careful performance, as it generally proves 
successful, and leaves no exposed portion of the stock to form a source 
of weakness or disease. The protec¬ 
tion of the vertical parts of the stock 
with the young wood of the scion is. 
only of secondary importance to the 
effecting of a speedy and complete 
union between the two parts concerned 
in grafting. During the whole time 
the two parts are uniting the air and 
light should be jealously excluded. 
Should the clay crack, or any fissures 
appear in the wax, these must be at 
once made good. Supports must also 
be tied to the stock in the form 
of small stakes, to which the scions 
should be tied as soon as they break into leaf, for fear the wind pur¬ 
chase on the end of the leaves should blow them out. After the union 
is perfectly effected, the ties will generally require loosening, to allow the 
parts to swell and grow freely. It is safest, however, 
to keep a loose tie on the parts during the whole of 
the first season. A little clay or wax also assists the 
young wood of the scion and the stock to overlap 
each other, to cover the raw edges of both, and heal 
all wounds. 
Security and the thorough exclusion of light, air, 
and all other disturbing forces, are of so much im¬ 
portance that the tying and claying or waxing round 
of the point of union between the two parts ought to 
follow immediately the insertion of the scion. In 
is needful to give sufficient compression to 
keep the parts steady without, however, injuring the bark or young 
wood under it by excessive tightness. Amateurs mostly err by an 
excess of tie; it is no advantage, but the reverse, to use a tie either 
too thick or too long. It is not needful even to make the tie con¬ 
tinuous, far less overlap. A far neater, easier method is the simple one 
of crossing, as shown in Fig. 9. Strong bast or strands of Eussian mats 
