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!