STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 273 



labors in the shape of fruit. And oh! how luscious will the apples 

 look, and how delicious will they taste if you have grown them ! But 

 won't you see them and taste them at their best? Then if they set 

 too thickly, thin out a part of the fruit. Don't let them overbear 

 when young, but remove a portion for the good of the rest. 



BUDDING AND GRAFTING. 



It would seem as if this part properly belonged to the work of 

 the nurseryman rather than the farmer. Yet both are easy to learn 

 and may be practiced by any one. Budding consists in transfer- 

 ring the bud of one tree to another. It must be done when the 

 sap is at its full flow and after the leaf has fully formed, so that 

 the bark will cleave from the wood readily. Cut in the bark an 

 incision like a letter T. Take a bud from the shoot of this year, 

 after it is fully developed, by shaving oif the bark an inch and a 

 half in length, with a small part of the wood left underneath the 

 bud. Gently raise the bark open, have cut and slip in the bud, 

 first cutting oflF the leaf to a short distance above its base. Tie 

 with a piece of bass-wood bark or a narrow strip of cloth. When 

 the limb expands so that the cloth binds, unloose and finally re- 

 move it. The next spring the bud will start and the limb above it 

 should be cut off. 



GRAFTING. 



I presume every farmer's boy knows how to set a graft. If it be 

 cleft grafting, he knows that the limb must be sawn squarely off, 

 a split made in the middle, his graft shaved down to a point and 

 carefully inserted in the split. The graft should have two buds on 

 it and the whole cut surface should be covered with grafting- wax. 

 Great care should be observed to see that the back of the stock and 

 graft exactly join. There is whip and saddle grafting which is fre- 

 quently practice on large stocks, but the most common method is 

 root grafting. This is the method performed by our nurserymen 

 generally in winter, and consists in taking the roots of yearling 

 seedling apple trees and inserting the grafts immediately in the 

 part below the earth, and planting them out in the spring. 



HARVESTING AND MARKETING. 



One thing more and I am done. If we are fortunate enough to 

 grow fruit in any quantities, it must be sold. It should always be 



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