“Cleft grafting is almost described by its name.  A cleft or cut is made in the stock after the stem has been neatly cut across.  The cleft is a vertical cut of about an inch in length.  This is made through the centre of the stock.  The scion is made to fit down into this, so naturally it is cut like a wedge.  But there should be cuts made on both sides of the scion diagonally to form this wedge.  So two cut surfaces of cambium are laid bare to fit against two similar surfaces of the stock.  If the stock is several times thicker than the graft or scion, there should be two of these latter inserted.  Place one at either end of the cleft.  Bind and wax.

“If the stock is the same thickness as the graft then these two fit perfectly one into the other.

“This is only a little bit about grafting; but I trust this is enough to get you all interested in this work.

“‘Is grafting really necessary?’ I heard Albert whisper a while ago.  It does seem like a great deal of work.  The trouble with starting fruit from seed and expecting to get good results lies in this point:  Fruit trees seems to lose in their development from seed the ability to produce fruit as fine as the parent stock; and so grafting becomes a necessity.  Strange that this should be so, but it is.

“Start with a peach stone or seed.  It came from a fine tree; the fruit was luscious.  And yet the little seedling which comes from that very stone as a rule must be grafted to bear fruit of equally fine flavour as that of the original peach.  Fruit trees have a tendency to revert to old wild poor forms.  And so we must save them and help them.

“If any of you should start a little orchard he would wish to know how far apart the trees should be.  Apple trees should be set thirty to forty feet apart each way; pear trees twenty to thirty feet each way; plums and peaches sixteen to twenty feet each way.  Trees need room in which to spread out and develop; hence the distance given them.  I am glad that Myron has made a start on small fruits.  His strawberries were a success.  I’d like to think that next season each of you was to have in his garden, vegetables, flowers, one small fruit and one of the larger ones, such as a seedling apple or peach.”

VI

GARDEN OPERATIONS

“I suppose the talk to-day will seem to you all merely a repetition of things you already know.  Beginnings, however, are most important.  Results often take care of themselves, but beginnings never do.  Gardens started wrong always go wrong; that is, unless one tears up one’s work and begins over again.

“The first thing in garden making is the selection of a spot.  Some of us are saved that trouble, since we have no choice; or like Josephine, have nothing at all in the way of space.  Without a choice, it means simply doing the best one can with conditions.  With space limited it resolves itself into no garden, or a box garden.  Surely a box garden is better than nothing at all.  At least, Josephine felt this to be true, and proved that parsley grows (with care) as well in a box as in the garden.  I claim that everyone may have something of a garden if he be willing to take what comes to hand.