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Budding

r-ied on posts or stands, or supported from the tree, etc.

To perform the operation, having made one of the most convenient branches or shoots approach the stock, mark, on the body of the shoot, the part where it will most easily join to the stock; and in that part of each shoot pare away the bark and part of the wood two or three inches in length, and in the same manner pare the stock in the proper place for the junction of the shoot; next make a slit upwards in that part of the branch or shoot, as in layering, and make a slit downward in the stock to admit it. Let the parts be then joined, slipping the tongue of the shoot into the slit of the stock, making both join in an exact manner, and tie them closely together with bags.

Cover the whole afterward with a due quantity of tempered or grafting clay or moss. In hothouses care must be taken not to disturb the pots containing the plants operated on.

By Budding.

Budding, or, as it is sometimes called, grafting, by germs, consists in taking an eye or bud attached to a portion of the bark of a ligneous vegetable, of various size and form, and generally called a shield, and transplanting it to another or a different ligneous vegetable. Nursery-men now generally prefer budding to any other mode of propagation. The object in view is precisely that of grafting, and depends on the same principle; all the difference between a bud and a scion being that a bud is a shoot or scion in embryo. Budded trees are two years later in producing their fruit than grafted ones; but the advantage of budding is that, where a tree is rare, a new plant can be got from every eye, whereas by grafting it can only be got from every three or four eyes. There are also trees which propagate much more readily by budding than grafting; and others, as most of the stone fruits, are apt to throw out gum when grafted. Budding is formed from the beginning of July to the middle of August, the criterion the formation of the buds in the axillæ of the leaf of the present year.

The buds are known to be ready by the shield, or portion of bark to which they are attached, easily parting with the wood.

Shield Budding Is performed as follows: Fix on a smooth part on the side of the stock, rather from than towards the sun, and of a height depending, as in grafting, on whether dwarf, half, or whole standard trees are desired; then, with the budding-knife, make a horizontal cut across the rind, quite through the firm wood; from the middle of this transverse cut make a slit downward perpendicularly, an inch or more long, going also quite through to the wood.

Proceed with expedition to take off a bud; holding the cutting or scion in one hand, with the thickest end outward, and with the knife in the other hand, enter it about half an inch or more below a bud, cutting nearly half-way into the wood of the shoot, continuing it, with one clean slanting cut, about half an inch or more above the bud, so deep as to take off part of the wood along with it, the whole about an inch and a half long; then directly with the thumb and finger, or point of the knife, slip off the woody part remaining to the bud; which done, observe whether the eye or germ of the bud remains perfect; if not, and a little hole appears in that part, the bud has lost its root, and another must be prepared. This done, place the back part of the bud or shield between the lips, and with the flat haft of the knife separate the bark of the stock on each side of the perpendicular cut clear to the wood, for the admission of the bud, which directly slip down, close between the wood and bark, to the bottom of the slit. Next cut off the top part of the shield even with the horizontal cut, in order to let it completely into its place, and to join exactly the upper edge of the shield with the transverse cut, that the descending sap may immediately enter the back of the shield, and protrude granulated matter between it and the wood, so as to effect a living union. The parts are to be bound round with a ligament of fresh bass, previously soaked in water, to render it pliable and tough. Begin a little below the bottom of the perpendicular slit, proceeding upward closely round every part, except just over the eye of the bud, and continue it a little above the horizontal cut, not too tight, but just sufficient to keep the hole close, and exclude the air, sun, and wet.

Another Method of Budding.

Trees are generally budded by making a transverse section in the bark of the stock, and a perpendicular slit beneath it; the bud is then pushed down to give it the position which it is to have.

This operation is not always successful, and it is better to employ an inverse or contrary method by making the vertical slit above the transverse section or cut, and pushing the bark containing the bud upwards into its proper position. This method very rarely fails of success, because as the sap descends by the bark, the bud placed above the transverse section receives abundance, whereas if it be placed below the section very little sap can ever get to it to promote the growth of the bud. Oil rubbed upon the stems and branches of fruit trees destroys insects and increases the fruitbuds. Used upon the stems of carnations, it guards them against the depredations of the ear-wig.

The coarsest oil will suit, and only a small quantity is required. To bud with Double Ligatures.

This is an expeditious mode of budding by Mr. T. A. Knight. The operations are performed in the manner above stated, but instead bud, inserted upon the transverse section, through of one ligature two are applied, one above the the bark; the other applied below in the usual way. As soon as the buds have attached themselves the lower ligatures are taken off, but the others are suffered to remain. The passage of the sap upwards is in consequence much obstructed, in July (being inserted in June), and when these and the inserted buds begin to vegetate strongly have afforded shoots about four inches long the remaining ligatures are taken off, to permit the excess of sap to pass on, and the young shoots are nailed to the wall. Being there properly exposed to light, their wood will ripen well, and afford blossoms in the succeeding spring.

To graft Trees.

This is a mode of propagation applicable to most sorts of trees and shrubs, but not easily to very small under-shrubs, as heath, or herbaceous vegetables. It is chiefly used for continuing varieties of fruit trees. A grafted tree consists of two parts, the scion and the stock; their union constitutes the graft, and the performance of the operation is called grafting.

The end of grafting is, first, to preserve and multiply varieties and sub-varieties of fruit-trees, endowed accidentally or otherwise with particular qualities, which cannot be with certainty transferred to their offspring by seeds, and which would be multiplied too slowly or ineffectually by any other mode of propagation.

Second, to accelerate the fructification of trees, J