[Illustration: TONGUE-GRAFTING.--(FIG. 58.)]
_Tongue-Grafting._--Suppose you have your stock of the proper age for grafting, you cut it off at three or four inches from the ground, and with a very _sharp, straight, and narrow-bladed grafting-knife_, cut a thin strip of bark and wood upward, from about two inches below your already shortened stock. Make this cut at one pull of the knife, inserting the edge rather horizontally, and when it has gone through the bark and into the wood a little short of the middle, pull straight upward, (2, _a, b_;) then at rather less than half way down this cut, and with the blade of your knife across the cut, and downward, cut a very _thin tongue_ of not more than three eighths of an inch long, (2, _c_.) Proceed nearly in the same way with the bottom part of the scion; cut first a narrow strip of wood and bark out, but not putting the knife in horizontally, as you have done with regard to the stock, (at 2, _a_,) nor bringing it out straight to the end, to make a shoulder or angle, as you have done at (2, _a b_;) but make a sloping cut (1, _a b_,) of about the same length as the cut in the stock, or rather a little less if anything; then make a tongue (1, _c_) to correspond with that of the stock, but recollect that this must be cut _upward_ instead of _downward_; then place the scion upon the stock, inserting the tongue of the scion into the tongue of the stock. Bring the four edges of bark, that is, the two edges of the cut in the top of the stock, and the two corresponding edges of the cut in the bottom of the scion, to meet precisely; or, if the scion be, in diameter, a smaller piece of wood than the stock, so that its two edges of bark can not both meet those of the stock, then let only one meet, but be sure that one meets precisely. But observe, that this can never be unless the first cut in the stock and that in the scion (2, _a b_,) and (1, _a b_,) be as even as a die, and performed with a knife scarcely less sharp than a razor. Take a common pruning-knife, and attempt to make a cut of this kind, and you will find when you come to fit the scion on, that, squeeze them together as you may, you will, in most cases, see light between the parts of the stock and the scion that you are trying to join, so effectually, as that the sap shall flow out of the one into the other, unconscious of any division at all! But I will not suppose anybody so ungain (as it is called in Hampshire) as to go about so nice an operation as this without being prepared with the proper instruments for performing it; and therefore, I now suppose the scion put on properly, and presenting the appearance as in (3, _a_.) But this is not all; the operation is not yet complete. The two parts thus joined must be bound closely to one another with matting, or bass, as the gardeners call it, (4.) A single piece tied on to the stock, will, if well done, almost insure the junction; but lest parching winds should come and rip up all vegetation, it is usual to put on besides the bandage of matting, a ball of well-beaten clay sprinkled over with a little wood-ashes or the fine siftings of cinders, to cover completely the parts grafted, that is, from an inch below them to an inch or so above them, (5;) and, even to prevent this ball of clay from being washed off by heavy rains, it is well to tie around it a covering of coarse canvass, or else to earth up the whole plant as you do beans or peas, drawing a little mound around it so as to reach nearly the top of the clay. Mr. Harrison prepares his grafting clay in the following manner: Take two parts of clay and one of horse-dung, free from straw, mix them together, and beat the mass until the whole is thoroughly incorporated, then temper it with a little water till it is reduced to the consistence of stiff paste. This composition _never cracks_ on drying!