1879. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



145 



Fruit and Vegetable Gardening. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



JUNE BUDDED PEACH TREES. 



BY H. J. HILLEXMEYER, LEXINGTON, KY, 



The saving of one year in the propagation of 

 Peach trees having attracted the attention of 

 nurserymen, I was induced to give June budding 

 a trial. My first experiment upon two thousand 

 proved very disastrous. Tlie seeds were planted 

 on extra hemp ground — a Kentucky term for the 

 best of land — and were worked the first week in 

 June, the stocks then averaging about the thick- 

 ness of a lead pencil. After the buds had united 

 well, they were headed in the usual manner. 

 Visions of nice, smooth, light stock that would 

 compare favorably with Eastern trees, floated 

 pleasantly through my mind at this time. The 

 stocks when headed were making an exuberant 

 growth, and their total defoliation killed the en- 

 tire lot outright. 



My second experiment, last season, varied in 

 detail from the first, in the manner of heading. 

 The tops instead of being entirely removed were 

 broken about an inch above the bud until suffi- 

 cient foliage had been formed below the fracture 

 to obviate the preceding loss. The buds broke 

 very uniformly, and when six inches high the 

 tops were entirely removed and as soon as 

 deemed prudent sprouted. The growth was not 

 very satisfactory, and the foliage presented de- 

 cidedly a " dyspeptic" appearance. At digging 

 time I was impressed with the idea that my 

 June budded stock would be very much more 

 ornamental on the " brush pile " than in the 

 pack trenches, and grubbing-hoe in hand pro- 

 ceeded to its execution. The best trees attained 

 a height of four feet, and in all but smoothness 

 would have answered as a support to the languid 

 steps of " that fashionable young man about 

 town." 



Peach trees here, raised in the ordinary way 

 generally attain a diameter of three-fourths of 

 an inch or over, a foot above the bud and are 

 six to eight feet high. The average planter "in 

 the Blue Grass" would not be favorably in- 

 clined towards "June" stock, and individually 

 I am entirely satisfied as to the expediency of 

 the new method. 



BUDDING AND AFTER TREATMENT OF 

 THE PEACH. 



BY CHAS. BLACK, HIGHTSTOWN, N.J. 



In answer to J. A. McK., page 82 March num- 

 ber, he is at least twenty years behind on the bud- 

 ding business if 2000 is a hard days work ; it is 

 not at all difficult to find men here who can bud 

 3000, 4000 and some few 5000 in ten hours when 

 everything is in proper condition. "We think we 

 have brought the raising of Peach trees as near 

 perfection as possible; still in twenty years 

 hence we may be completely outdone. I will 

 endeavor to give the information asked. Our 

 first efibrt is to have fine thrifty seedlings not 

 too large but to stand regularly in the row from 

 three to four inches apart, rows four to four and 

 a half feet. We commence as early in August 

 as possible, generally the first week have the 

 branches and leaves all cleaned off for six inches 

 up the trees. Clean out all clods, weeds, etc., so 

 that there will be nothing in the way of the work- 

 men ; the buds are cut the night before they are 

 wanted and spread out on grass, well wet, 

 with leaves on. Then early in the morning the 

 leaves are cut closely to the eyes of the bud ; the 

 buds are kept in a wet cloth in the shade at the 

 nursery. The budder wraps up in a cloth enough 

 sticks or limbs to bud several hundred and car- 

 ries them tied fast to his waistband by his side ; 

 he takes out a stick holds it in his left hand, with 

 lower end from him, and places his knife — which 

 may be any kind with a blade pretty thin and of 

 good quality, — about half an inch below the 

 bud; then with a drawing cut — gradually 

 deeper — cut about as far above the bud ; cut 

 about half way through a medium sized stick, not 

 so deep in a larger one. Take out the knife and 

 cut crosswise of the limb, just through the bark, 

 about half an inch above the bud, making a stout 

 bud about one inch long ; place the point of the 

 knife within one or two inches of the ground on 

 the seedling, making a cut upwards just through 

 the bark about one inch long ; then make a cut 

 at the top of it crosswise making a T shaped cut 

 after it is done. In making the cross cut, the 

 knife has to have a certain twist which throws 

 open the bark enough to admit the point of the 

 bud without the aid of bone or quill. Now take 

 hold of the bud, cut on the limb Avith thumb and 



