134 THE FLORIST. 



teur who has only a few plants under his superintendence it may be 

 followed with advantage. I can state from experience that by this plan 

 as good a plant can be obtained the first autumn after budding, as 

 is sometimes sent out from nurseries the second ; and I have many 

 strong healthy plants, of from six to eight years' growth, which prove 

 that as healthy trees can be grown by this method, as by that of 

 keeping the buds dormant during the first season. I have practised 

 both systems for these last eight or nine years, without losing more 

 buds in winter from frost, &c. than by the former method. 



To ensure success, the principal thing is, to select strong-growing 

 stocks and well -ripened prominent buds, and insert them in the 

 usual way near the base of the young shoots as early in the season 

 as the latter are firm enough to bear the knife, i. e. when the young 

 wood is sufficiently hard, that the knife, in cutting through the 

 bark, does not cut too deeply in the w r ood, and when the bark 

 separates freely ; then cut back the shoots to two or three eyes 

 above the buds, in order to throw the sap to the buds ; one or two 

 eyes above the latter should be allowed to grow out an inch or 

 two, and then their tops should be pinched off, when they will shoot 

 out again, and must be treated in like manner as often as they make 

 fresh shoots. They may be thinned out, but always leave a shoot or 

 two of young wood with two or three eyes on it ; remove all eyes 

 and suckers from the stock below the buds the moment any make 

 their appearance. When the inserted buds have made shoots four 

 or five inches long, top them, when they will break again, and often 

 another shoot will break from the base of the first, which will lay the 

 foundation for forming a good head. It will, however, be necessary 

 to take every precaution to prevent the wind from blowing the buds 

 out again ; this is best effected by tying some short sticks firmly to 

 the stocks below the bud, and then fastening the young shoots from 

 the bud to the sticks. 



In spring, I have been in the habit of treating my dormant buds 

 in a similar manner, i. e. buds inserted in July and August, and 

 which do not break till the following spring. They are kept dor- 

 mant by allowing the shoots in which they are inserted to con- 

 tinue growing until autumn without being shortened. When the 

 sap begins to descend, they are cut off about a foot above the buds, 

 to prevent them from being broken by the wind ; and in March 

 I prune them back to the second or third eye above the inserted 

 buds, allowing one or two of the eyes to grow an inch or two to keep 

 up the sap. By continually topping, sufficient sap is supplied to the 

 buds to make them break strongly. I have found that if they are 

 cut off early in the spring too near the bud, and below an eye (which 

 I have often seen done), the wood dies back under the buds. They 

 then break weakly, and seldom make healthy plants. To prevent 

 this, the shoot above the bud is allowed to grow, but not luxuriantly, 

 until July, when those that lay dormant the winter before, and broke 

 early in the spring, may be removed ; but those that were budded in 

 May and June, and forced to break, should remain till July twelve 

 months. In July take the first opportunity of a cloudy or stormy 



