182 RAISING CARNATIONS FROM SEED. 
The common method of extracting buds is to cut away a piece of the 
shoot, and afterwards extract the wood; but this destroys the very 
sharp edge of the knife, and the cut will invariably be found more or 
less rough. The bark should be cut all round the bud to the shape 
and size wanted, and the thumb pressed against the cut portion, at the 
side of the bud. If the shoot is growing and healthy, the bud will 
separate freely, and there will be no laceration of the edge; the bark 
will be cut as smooth as a piece of cheese, and the edge of the knife 
will be kept sharp, as no wood needs to be cut through. As far as 
mechanical operation is concerned, this cutting smooth is of far more 
importance than any method of inserting the bud; if the bud does not 
squeeze freely off the branch with the side of the thumb, it is very 
doubtful of succeeding. 
The success, however, of budding depends greatly on the state of 
the stock; if this is growing vigorously, and the bark flies up quite 
freely on the introduction of the budding knife, the budding will 
hardly fail of success; if the young shoots of the stock are nearly 
ripened to the top, the bark is in the way of beginning to fasten to the 
wood; or if the shoots are small and weak, and the plant unhealthy, 
the bark most likely has not risen at all; in either case, the bark will 
not rise freely from the incision with the handle of the knife, the sap 
is not circulating freely, and it is in vain to attempt introducing a bud 
by forcing up the bark. ‘The bud should be chosen from a vigorous 
young plant ; the shoots from old trees have not so much sap or vita- 
lity; and the bud should be chosen when the bark is beginning to 
assume a ripe colour; if too ripe, it does not rise so freely from the 
bark, and vitality is beginning to get dormant; if too green it is apt 
to perish before uniting to the stock. The buds should be tied as soon 
as possible after tlie operation, to exclude air from the wounds ; but if 
the stocks are vigorous, drawing very tight is not of so much conse- 
quence here as in grafting. When buds are nearly ripe, in which 
state they succeed best, the piece of wood which unites the bud to the 
branch is apt to break off far in, and leave the appearance of a hollow 
eye. Some operators attach great importance to this, and say that, 
though the bark live and unite, the bud will not push in the spring ; 
but I have frequently inserted buds with very hollow eyes, and marked 
them for the purpose of experiment, and they always pushed as well as 
the others; the sap of the tree should soon fill this hollow. Much of 
the success also depends on having the edges of all the cuts smooth, 
and the operation done as speedily as possible; if the edges of the 
wound are rough, the vessels of the liber, where the living principle is 
most active, are bruised and lacerated ; and, if long exposed to the air, 
they begin to spoil. 
RAISING CARNATIONS FROM SEED. 
BY AN OLD FLORIST. 
OBSERVING in your CapineT that several of your correspondents 
solicit some information on raising Carnations from-seed, I am induced, 
