of the knife in cutting our scions of hard
wood trees. Perhaps the majority of scions are shaped with the plane
rather than with the knife because it gives a much truer surface. The
block plane, then, I believe, is to be used more and more instead of the
knife because of the very true surface that we make on the scion and on
the stock and very quickly.

Of course with a small scion of this sort that would be about the slope
that I would use for my ordinary splice. Fasten the splice together and
simply wrap it with raffia. There is an ordinary splice graft fastened
with raffia. That is the simple form that has given me the best results
and I have tried out all the fantastic forms of grafting.

Now I am going to use the plane on a little larger scion. That is about
the slope that I would use ordinarily. We will say this is to be the
scion and this the stock. In order to make them fit perfectly I will use
a smaller block plane. Now I will pass this about. You see with what
absolute perfection those surfaces fit. You can get absolute perfection
of fit by trimming a scion with a plane instead of with a knife. Even
the best experts, like Mr. Jones, who make beautiful free-hand cuts,
will find that with a plane they may make still better ones. That is one
of the grafts that I would ordinarily fasten just with raffia, but I
will fasten one together with screws to show how it is done. Now we will
say that this is the stock and this is the scion. I am going to prepare
them to fit each other. Some will ask if I ever use a scion as large as
that. Sometimes I use a scion two or three feet long and as large as
that in diameter. They are full of vitality and make wonderful growth.
In order to do this I trim it down roughly with the knife to the general
shape before I use the plane. I will cut as true as possible with the
knife in order to simplify my work later.

MR. WEBER: In a large scion don't you have to have a larger exposed
surface?

DR. MORRIS: I do not think that really counts.

MR. SMEDLEY: Isn't the tree in the ground when you graft it?

DR. MORRIS: This is supposed to be in the ground.

MR. JONES: You couldn't do a thousand of those a day?

DR. MORRIS: If you have something special, where you want to use up some
big scions. But you can use the plane on little grafts just as well. Now
this is the stock and Dr. Deming is going to represent Mother Earth.

MR. SMEDLEY: Are the scion and stock necessarily of the same d