Miscellaneous. 217 



BUDDING PEACH TREES. 



As a rule, budding may begin as soon as the buds are large enough 

 to cut from the twigs and continue as long as the sap flows freely. It 

 is not safe to put budding off too late in the season, as a sudden frost or 

 dry, cold spell may kill the leaves or chill the sap, and thus prevent the 

 bud from forming a complete union with the stem in the fall, and if not 

 then formed it never will be afterwards. Budding is a trade, and in no 

 department of agriculture is skilled labor more essential than in this. 

 The nurseryman can not be too careful in the selection of his budders. 

 Experimenters, novices, bunglers, are all to be rejected without hesitation. 

 They are dear at any price. Buds are procured from nurseries or young 

 orchards where the trees are full of vigorous laterals. The best size for 

 these twigs is the thickness of a full-sized goose-quill. Each budder 

 should be furnished with two assistants. One is called a stripper and 

 the other a tyer. The stripper goes before the budder and rubs off all the 

 leaves and small shoots of the trees for a distance of six inches above 

 the ground. This clears the way for a budder and enables him to pro- 

 ceed with ease and dispatch. The budding now commences. The budder 

 is provided with a very sharp budding-knife, made especially for the pur- 

 pose. With this he makes a vertical incision in the tree, about an inch and 

 a half long, and a transverse one at right angles with it. It is made with 

 great rapidly in this manner : The knife is inserted in the lower slit, 

 drawn up the desired length; then, with a slight twist of the hand right 

 and left, the transverse cut is made, and the edges of the bark at the same 

 time loosened so as to readily admit the bud. These incisions are clear 

 through the bark and slightly in the wood. The bud is now cut from the 

 scion and immediately inserted. The budder has now done his part 

 and proceeds to another, and so on, with great rapidity. Some expert 

 budders will bud 2,500 trees in a day, and some have exceeded 3,000 

 per day. The tyer now follows with hank of ties, and taking one between 

 his thumb and fingers, he places the center of it firmly just below the eye 

 of the bud, passes the ends rapidly around the stock in opposite directions, 

 brings them back above the eye of the bud and ties them. Another 

 method is for the tyer to place himself on the opposite side of the bud, 

 but place the tie as before, pass it clear around and back to the side 

 opposite the bud, and tie it there. Some prefer this, as they insist that 

 it holds the bud more firmly, and that when the ties have to be cut there 

 will be less risk to the bud. The budding is now complete. The ties are 



