THE STORY OF A TREE. 
Root Grafting—The Baby Seedling. 
Nurserymen are now engaged in making root-grafts. 
Grafting is confined principally to the propagation of 
apple trees. Peaches, pears, plums, and cherries are 
usually budded in the Summer. It is necessary to 
graft or bud fruit trees to produce the different varie¬ 
ties. ' For instance, if one were to take the seed of a 
Northern Spy apple and plant them, there would be 
no certainty about the trees from such seed ever pro¬ 
ducing fruit like its parent. Apples, therefore, will 
not come true from the seed any more than other 
kinds of fruit, and they must be budded or grafted 
into the varieties that it is desired to grow. 
Years ago, the Eastern nurserymen used to raise 
their own apple seedlings from the seed, but of late 
years it is found to be 
more profitable to get 
them either in France or 
in the West. Topeka, 
Kansas, or Shenadoah, 
Iowa, are large centers 
for- the production of 
apple seedlings. The size 
most suitable for grafting 
is 3-16-inch and up at the 
collar. Some nursery¬ 
men prefer them J^-inch 
and up. The cost of 
these stocks varies con¬ 
siderably, but this year 
from $6 to $8 per thou¬ 
sand is a fair wholesale 
price to pay for apple 
seedlings. There are two 
kinds of apple seedlings, 
straight roots and piece 
roots. Straight roots are 
best for making piece- 
root grafts, branched 
roots for planting out to 
bud the coming Summer, 
or for making whole- 
root grafts. Their use is 
considered when buying 
this stock. 
Having secured the 
seedlings as early in the 
Winter as possible, they 
should be stored in sand 
in a frost-proof cellar 
until it is convenient to 
work them up into grafts. 
Oftentimes the seedlings 
arrive in a frozen condi¬ 
tion. In such case they 
never should be un¬ 
packed, but left in the box or bale and* stored in a 
cellar until the frost comes out of them. The next 
problem is to get the scions for grafting. If you 
want to grow a Baldwin apple, you must secure Bald¬ 
win scions; if it is to be a Greening, you must get 
Greening scions, and so on. Doubtless some readers 
have heard that nurserymen are accustomed to propa¬ 
gate their trees by cutting scions from the nursery 
rows rather than taking them from bearing orchard 
trees of known quality and productiveness. From 
every point of view, the young thrifty scion is to be 
preferred. They unite better with the natural seedling, 
and throw up a strong healthy graft. It is assumed, 
of course, that they are true to name. An experi¬ 
enced nurseryman seldom makes a mistake with 
varieties at this stage of the tree’s life. However, 
when scions from two- 3 'ear-old trees cannot be ob¬ 
tained, or when doubt exists as to their real name, it 
is practicable to obtain them from healthy trees of 
bearing age. Care should be taken to cut only the 
last season’s growth of wood out of the top of the 
tree. This may be done any time during the Winter 
months. These scions will vary in length according 
to the limb growth the tree made the previous season. 
Many neglected trees would not furnish any scions 
at all. It would be a safe rule to cut a few of the 
scions, and send them to some State experiment station 
for examination. If they show any trace of San Jose 
scale, or other dangerous plant diseases, it would be 
folly to use any of them. The scions having been 
obtained, they should be stored in a cellar until made 
into grafts. 
Grafting itself is not difficult to understand. To 
begin with, you must decide on whether you will make 
piece-root or whole-root grafts. In fact they are all 
piece-root grafts, but some nurserymen use the 
straight-root apple seedling and cut it into pieces 
about four inches long. One good seedling will make 
three of these piece roots. If you prefer to make 
whole-root grafts, the branched-root seedlings are 
used. In such case the top is cut off at the collar and 
all the roots chopped off so that the root system is 
about five inches long. In northern latitudes, for 
instance Western New York, the nurserymen get an 
average growth of about five inches more of top on 
a whole-root graft in one season than they get on a 
piece-root, but otherwise the piece-roots do just as 
well and make just as good a tree. Perhaps, how¬ 
ever, for the beginner, it would be more profitable 
to propagate on whole roots. 
The next step is to weld a piece of the scion about 
four inches long on each root. It is best to have at 
least three eyes on each piece of scion. The top of 
the scion where the wood is soft should not be used. 
Grafting the scion into the root is a delicate operation. 
Both the root and the scion must be scarfed at the 
same angle, just as though you were to sharpen two 
lead pencils on one side. Then a tongue is made in 
loth the scion and the root by simply cutting back¬ 
wards about one-half of an inch on this slanting 
surface so as to make a more perfect union when 
they are joined together. Oftentimes the scion and 
root differ in diameter. It is absolutely essential to 
have the bark even on one side when they are united, 
regardless of how it is on the other side. This is 
done so that the cambium layer, or rather the tissue 
directly under the back come together on at least one 
side. This layer is the growing part of the branch 
and they must come in 
contact in order to have 
the graft live. The ac¬ 
companying pictures. 
Figs. 53 and 55, will 
show how this joining 
together is done clearer, 
perhaps, than our descrip¬ 
tion of it. Types and de¬ 
tails are shown in Fig. 53. 
Nothing remains but to 
wind it with grafting 
twine. Beginning at the 
lower end of the union, 
overlap the twine once so 
as to hold it in place, 
and wind the graft five 
or six times until you can 
catch the string between 
the root and the scion 
on the upper end of the 
cut at the collar. The 
twine is then simply 
broken off and the job 
is complete. The for¬ 
mula for grafting thread 
is as follows : Balls of 
darning cotton, No. 16, 
are used. They must be 
dipped in the following 
preparation: Four parts 
of resin, two parts of 
tallow, and one part of 
beeswax boiled together. 
It is necessary to have 
the twine warm when 
winding the grafts. A 
practical way to do this 
is to keep the ball in a 
can inside a pan or 
kettle of hot water. 
The best way to hold the grafts until planting time 
is to pack them in fresh pine sawdust, and store them 
in a frost-proof cellar. This fresh pine sawdust is 
just the right dampness for them, and the pitch in the 
pine serves to help heal over the cut and make a per¬ 
fect union in the graft. It is not absolutely necessary 
to go to this trouble, but nurserymen find it the best 
way to handle grafts, and many of them would not 
think of resorting to any other method. However, I 
know of nurserymen who wind their grafts with plain 
twine and pack them in damp excelsior until Spring. 
It is not the surer way. 
As soon as the ground warms up in the month of 
April, the soil should be plowed and prepared by thor¬ 
ough harrowing. Slovenly work will never do in this 
business. Mark off rows 3^4 feet apart, and plant the 
grafts about eight inches apart in the row. It requires 
ILLUSTRATING ROOT GRAFTING FROM LEFT TO RIGHT. Fig. 53. 
