CHE REFERENCE LIBRARY - Pole Shift Survival Information

146 THE NLrRSERY-MANUAL
lished. Some species may be transferred to the open border
or to nursery rows in the spring, but most plants grafted
in this waq’ are handled in pots the following season.
Rhododendrons, Japanese maples and many conifers are some
of the plants multiplied by veneer-grafting. Such plants are
usually laid on their sides in frames and covered with rnoss
for several days, or until healing
begins.
!!3lis method, when used
with hardy or t.ender plants,
gives a great advantage in
much experimental work, because
the stock is not injured
by a failure, and can be used
over again many times, perhaps
even in the same season
; and the manipulation is
simple, and easily acquired 1,)
inexperienced hands.
In cleft-grafting, the stock is
cut off squaxt4y and split, and
into the split a cion with a
wedge-shapecl base is inserted. It is adapted to large stocks,
and is the method ernplo~xxl for top-grafting old trees, its
only competitor being the bark-graft clc3cAeCl on page lti0.
Figs. 166, 167 illustrate the operatioll.
The end of the stock, technicull~ cal!ed a ‘* stub,” is usually
large enough to a~conimodate two cions, one on either side.
In fact, it is better to use two cions, not only because they
double the chances of success, but because they hasten the
healing of the stub. Cleft-grafting is at best a harsh process,