the top of the scion. It is well, in
case the stock is large, to place three or four scions around the stock,
removing all but the strongest after a year of two.

This graft is satisfactory for thin-barked species, but for the hickory,
the slot bark graft is preferable.

For this graft, the scion should be trimmed as a wedge, with one face
about twice as long as the other. Two parallel cuts are made through the
bark at the top of the stock a distance apart equal to the width of the
scion wedge. This strip of bark, or "tongue" is loosened at the top, and
the wedge is forced between it and the wood, with the long face next to
the stock, as in the simple bark graft.

Secure tying and waxing should be practiced in all grafting. Small nails
or tacks driven into the top of the stock will help in anchoring the
tying material to the sloping surface.

Inexperienced propagators should get it clearly in mind that union takes
place only in the new growth. This new growth builds up from the cambium
layer, which is the outside layer of wood cells that lies just beneath
and in contact with the bark.

This is why it is so vitally necessary that the lines between the bark
and cambium be placed in parallel contact as closely as possible, in the
splice and cleft grafts. Never mind if the outside of the bark of scion
and do not match perfectly, due to differences in the thickness of the
bark. It is the inside line of the bark that must match.

Actual union takes place along this cambial line. The old wood of the
wedge and cleft cannot, and never does, unite.

A word about scions. I seldom use a scion with more than two buds. The
best scion wood is of the previous season's growth, if it is of good
diameter and well ripened. Thin, slender twigs give poor results. On
old, slow-growing, bearing trees it is sometimes not possible to get
good scion wood one year old. In this case it is best to take some of
the older wood in cutting the scion. When used, the wedge should be cut
from the two-year wood, just below the one-year wood, with the top of
the scion carrying two or three buds on the new wood. The tip of the
scion should be waxed, if cut.

Scions should be cut when perfectly dormant and kept in cold storage
until used. If kept too warm and wet the buds may swell, making the
scions worthless.

It is quite possible to cut the scions about three weeks before the buds
begin to swell and get good results by grafting immediately. The ch