where you can get a selection, but the pleasure in your 

 tree is not the same as if you had made it. Budding, 

 like grafting, is a dainty little surgical operation, and, 

 provided we exercise care and follow the ordinary rules 

 experience has laid down, success is almost assured. 

 The amateur is wisest who takes a good lesson from 

 an expert, for the art is easily learnt and never for- 

 gotten. Practice, however, makes perfect, and the 

 percentage of losses is diminished the more we bud. 

 One lesson is better than all the reading of books and 

 articles, although the knowledge imparted in a book 

 should be digested. There are tricks to every trade, 

 and gardening is not without its share. I have 

 watched experts over the most difficult operation in 

 bark or shield that discloses the base of the bud — and 

 nearly every man varied the method in some way or 

 another. C)ne would jerk the wood up and sideways 

 with finger and thumb ; another would bring it sharply 

 up with the point of the knife and thumb; or yet 

 another, working from the top of the scion after the 

 wood was loosened, would remove the wood with a 

 pull and upward motion of the knife and thumb. It 

 matters not to the amateur what method he employs so 

 long as he is successful ; but if he had to earn his living 

 from the budding of briars by piecework, and then de- 

 pend for future employment on the number that 

 took, he would soon weigh up the right and the wrong 

 way of doing things, and realise the value of experi- 

 ence and competition. Stocks are the first considera- 

 tion, and, whether they be Manetti, Briars, De la 

 Grifferee, or Laxa, the operation is the same. The 

 state of the bark of the stock will determine as to 

 whether or no it is fit to bud. The sap should be 

 running freely, and this is seen by the growth being 

 made ; also the thorns should slip readily when prised 

 sideways with the thumb. If the stocks appear back- 

 ward and the land is dry, before budding, water well 

 for three or four days all trees and syringe overhead. 

 Bud and stock must be equally ready for the operation, 

 else you v/ill only court a failure. In regard to the bud 

 or buds to be selected, choose those upon a stem that 

 has just flowered, and take in preference the middle 



