10 PROPAGATION OF TROPICAL FRUIT TREES, ETC. 



inaugurated to determine the best wood for budding and grafting, 

 because it is evident that one of the principal reasons for so many 

 failures in the propagation of the mango is the use of the wrong kind 

 of wood, especially for budding. 



BEST ACE FOR WOOD. 



It has been found that very indifferent results are obtained from 

 wood which is less than a year old, but very satisfactory unions have 

 been secured by the use of bud wood from branches from one to six- 

 years old. This is not to be wondered at, at least from the propagator's 

 point of view, when we consider that the wood of the mango takes a 

 longer time to mature than that of most of the fruit and forest trees of 

 this country. The mango makes several distinct growths or "flushes" 

 each summer; it will make a shoot with a number of leaves, then rest 

 for a few weeks, when the terminal bud of the shoot will again start 

 into growth. This is repeated in many instances as often as seven 

 times before the close of the growing season. By midsummer, the 

 wood of the first growth looks to the uninitiated as if it were much 

 older than it really is, and this same wood is that which is commonly 

 selected to give material for budding. 



THICK BARK OF MANGO AN OBSTACLE IX BUDDING. 



In connection with these experiments it was observed also that part 

 of the difficulty experienced in budding the mango may be ascribed to 

 the thickness of the bark, which does not allow a good union to be 

 made by the usual methods employed in budding thin-barked trees. 

 In shield-budding the mango, where the bark is raised on each side of 

 the longitudinal cut in the stock and the bud inserted, there is too 

 much air space left, resulting in almost every case in the death of the 

 bud through the shrinking of the bark when not sufficiently supplied 

 with moisture from the stock. The bark to which the bud is attached 

 will shrivel to one-half its original bulk in a day or two. Decay will 

 then almost certainly set in. In budding it is imperative that as close 

 ant as possible be secured on all sides, and that the parts be waxed 

 and held firmly in place with a strong ligature until a union is effected. 

 These details can only be carried out by giving very close attention to 

 the work. 



KNIFE FOR BIDDING THE MANGO. 



The ordinary budding knife is not the best tool for the purpose of 

 preparing buds and places for them. There are tools on the market 

 for cutting and lifting sections of bark from stocks and scions which 

 are more or less serviceable. A good device for this work can be 

 easily made with two knife or razor blades, which should be firmly 

 fixed in a piece of wood so that the edges will be apart from each other 

 from an inch to an inch and a quarter. This instrument should be 



