236 THE FLORIST. 



BUDDING IN AMERICA. 



" Seeing over my garden-fence," says a correspondent to the New 

 England Farmer, " that neighbour Goodman had got George Handy, 

 a first-rate budder, at work in his little nursery, I first slung up my 

 hoe, and then walked round through the gate to see a little into 

 the operation. Like many other things, it is ' very simple after you 

 understand it.' I had read about the matter in divers books ; but 

 Handy told me what I never knew before, and I saw the thing done 

 too. 



The trees were of different sizes, from a quarter of an inch to an 

 inch in diameter, and were all just trimmed up roughly, about two 

 feet from the ground. George was budding. He sat on a small box 

 the south side of the row, and had a dish of buds, all cut ready to 

 be inserted, in water before him. I was surprised to see how short 

 is the process in skilful hands. George would hitch along his seat 

 with one hand, set the dish forward with the other, seize a tree and 

 bend it down under his right arm, and then make the cuts and the 

 opening, and slip in the buds as quick as my eye could follow him. 

 I noticed that he selected a smooth place in the young tree near to 

 the ground, so that the future tree should have a uniform appearance 

 throughout, and not present an ugly jog. First he made a cut up 

 the tree about three quarters of an inch long ; then another short 

 one across the top of the first ; then with the ivory in the other end 

 of his knife, he loosened and opened the corners of the bark at the top. 

 He now took up a bud from the dish before him, and holding it by 

 the foot-stalk — as he called the stem without the leaf — he again ap- 

 plied the ivory, raising the bark a little, and at the moment entered 

 the bud. The top of the bud seemed too weak to admit of being 

 forced down by the fingers the whole distance. This was quickly 

 done by the end of the knife-blade, inserted just below the foot- 

 stalk. 



The top of the bud now stuck out at the top its whole thickness. 

 A cross-cut with a knife exactly over the second cut made in open- 

 ing the bark at first, squared off the wood of the bud-slip, so that it 

 settled at once down into its place, close to the slimy hard wood, to 

 which it would soon adhere and grow. 



George shewed me how he cut the buds. He first selected scions 

 of this year's growth, not rank sprouts, with soft, half-formed wood, 

 nor, on the other hand, little peeling twigs, but good thrifty hard 

 scions, from which buds of some body and fulness could be readily 

 cut. As he takes these from the tree, he cuts off the leaves, as they 

 would rapidly rob the scion of its firmness in hot, dry weather. He 

 shewed me how he cut the buds. His knife had a thin sharp blade. 

 He held the stick of buds with the top towards him ; and inserting 

 his knife carefully about half an inch or a little more below the foot- 

 stalk, he brought it out as much above. The bud dropped off into 

 the dish of water, and the knife soon sent another and another 

 after it. 



