to the greatest of all foure, yet I affirme
two are sufficiently inough for any stocke whatsoeuer, and albeit they
are a little the longer in couering the head, yet after they haue
couered it the tree prospereth more in one yeere then that which
contayneth foure grafts shall doe in two, because they cannot haue sap
inough to maintaine them, which is the reason that trees for want of
prosperitie grow crooked and deformed: but to my purpose. When you haue
made your grafts ready, you shall then take a fine thinne sawe, whose
teeth shalbe filed sharpe and euen, and with it (if the stocke be
exceeding small) cut the stocke round off within lesse then a foote of
the ground, but if the stocke be as bigge as a mans arme, then you may
cut it off two or three foote from the ground, and so consequently the
bigger it is the higher you may cut it, and the lesser the nearer vnto
the earth: as soone as you haue sawne off the vpper part of the stocke,
you shall then take a fine sharpe chissell, somewhat broader then the
stocke, and setting it euen vpon the midst of the head of the stocke
somewhat wide of the pith, then with a mallet of woode you shall stricke
it in and cleaue the stocke, at least foure inches deepe, then putting
in a fine little wedge of Iron, which may keepe open the cleft, you
shall take one of your grafts and looke which side of it you intend to
place inward, and that side you shall cut much thinner then the out
side, with a most heedfull circumspection that by no meanes you loosen
or rayse vp the barke of the graft, cheifly on the out side, then you
shall take the graft, and wetting it in your mouth place it in one side
of the cleft of the stocke, and regard that the very knot or seame which
goes about the graft, parting the olde woode from the new, do rest
directly vpon the head of the stocke, and that the out side of the
graft doe agree directly with the out side of the stocke, ioyning barke
vnto barke, and sappe vnto sappe, so euen, so smooth, and so close, that
no ioyners worke may be discerned to ioyne more arteficially: which
done, vpon the other side of the stocke, in the other cleft, you shall
place your other graft, with full as much care, diligence, and euery
other obseruation: when both your grafts are thus orderly and
arteficially placed, you shall then by setting the haft of your chissell
against the stocke, with all lenitie and gentlenesse, draw forth your
wedge, in such sort that you doe not displace