Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/236

 anything you introduce into the their system will be grown over. I cannot very well explain my meaning, but if you will watch the trees or shrubs at this season you will at once understand.

The reason for grafting is, first, that it is quicker than waiting for a seedling to mature and bear, as when an old wood is grafted on to a younger the latter becomes merged, as it were, in the life of the former, and so bears much sooner than if allowed to grow alone. Another reason is, that by this mode of procedure we can ensure having and keeping the best fruit. For instance, say some neighbour has some specially fine variety of orange or apple, you can secure it by begging a graft from his tree—I think I have explained as clearly as I can. Seedlings of the Seville orange and a variety called the "Poor Man's" are the best for stocks.

The most simple mode of grafting is what is called, I think, the "Splice" graft. I am not sure of the terms, as the old gardener who taught me knew no terms or names for them, he only knew exactly how to do them.

To begin with, you must secure slips of bearing wood from the varieties you prefer and wish to propagate. At pruning time you can have these saved for you or secure them yourself, and plant them in some good ground until the tree or plant you mean to operate on is ready, that is, until the buds on it begin to swell.

Directly this happens it is ready, and to begin you must cut the stock with a sharp knife in a slanting slip—a pretty long one—and having taken your graft up, cut it to correspond so that they will fit to each other. Having got them right, bind the two together, making the two barks meet as well as you can. I have always found a narrow strip of flannel the best for binding, and once I was very successful with a starch bandage, but I had a good many failures first, so perhaps it would be very risky to recommend it. Having bound the graft, now make a mixture of clay and cow-dung; well work the two together and plaster it over the wound or graft—make a good sized knob on the tree. I forgot to say that the stock to be grafted on should be cut pretty near to the ground. I believe some gardeners even remove the earth and cut them below ground. Then instead of putting the clay round, merely tie the slips and fill the earth up above it. I have seen trees that were done in this way, but never tried it myself. There is another way by which you just slip the two slips—the stock and the graft—and insert one in the other instead of laying them flat together, but I have never managed it successfully, so would not advise others to try till they can do the splice graft successfully.

In budding it is often advisable to apply an outer covering of