CHE REFERENCE LIBRARY - Pole Shift Survival Information

PROPAGATION BY BUDDING AND GRAFTING 137
description, is that which considers methods of making the
union. Some of these kinds of grafting are catalogued on
pages 118 a.nd 119. The most important methods of grafting
are now to be considered ; but almost endless modifications
may be made in the details of the operations. The union of
the cion with the stock, like the union of the bud and the stock,
depends on the growing together of the cambial tissue of the
two. It is essential, therefore, that the tissue lying between
the outer bark and the wood in the cion should come closely
in contact with the similar tissue of the stock.
(‘ions are cut in fall or winter, or any time before the buds
swell in spring. Ouly the previous year’s growth is used in all
ordinary cases, but in maples and some other trees, older wood
may be taken. In the grafting of peaches - which is rarely
practiced- the best cions are supposed to be those with a small
portion of two-year-old wood at the lower end. This old wood
probably serves no other than a mechanical purpose, as the
recent wood is soft and pithy. It is a common opinion that
cions are worthless if cut in freezing weather, but this is unfounded
if the species is haidy.
The cions a,re stored in sand, moss or sawdust in a cool cellar,
or they may be buried in a sandy place. Or sometimes, when
a few are wanted for top-grafting, they are thrust into the
ground beside the tree into which they are to be set the following
spring. If the cions are likely to start before the spring
grafting can be undertaken, they may be placed in an icehouse.
Only well-formed and mature buds should be used.
Sometimes flower-buds are inserted for the purpose of fruiting
a. new or rare variety the following yea.r, but unless particular
pains is taken to nurse such a cion, it is likely to give only very
indifferent results.
In practice, only three kinds of grafting need be much considered.
These are whip-grafting, veneer-grafting and cleftgrafting.