PRINCIPLES OF VEGETATION, ETC. 129 



the parts are again bound together. The process is continued as often 

 as is deemed necessary, or the length of the shoots will permit, taking care 

 that in each case a leaf-bud is left above the point of union, and that it is 

 left uninjured by the ligature, but leaving eight or ten days between each 

 operation. 



■284. In the following spring the union will be complete ; but it is better 

 not to separate the grafts till the second spring. At this time cut each shoot 

 which has furnished the graft immediately below the ligature, and submit 

 each of the new shoots to the usual training. 



285. The weather most suitable for budding is a subject of dispute among 

 practical men. Cloudy weather has generally been preferred ; but Mr. Saul, 

 of Bristol,— no mean authority, protests strongly in favour of warm sunny 

 weather, provided the stock and buds are in proper condition. " In v/arm 

 weather," he says, " the sap is more gelatinous, and the bud, on being ex- 

 tracted and inserted in the stock, quickly and properly tied, soon takes. Oa 

 the contrary, in wet, cloudy weather, the sap is more thin and watery, and the 

 bud will not unite so freely ; besides this, a fall of rain, after the buds are 

 inserted, likely enough, in such weather, will fill up the interstices and rot 

 the buds before they have time to unite with the stock." 



2 86. Another question Mr. Saul agitates : — Is it necessary to extract the wood 

 fi-om the eye of the bud? ''American writers say, no ; but I answer, yes," he 

 says. " It may suit their hot, dry climate, but I must give the preference to 

 our old system of extracting the wood from the bud, not only for roses, but 

 for fi-uit, ornamental, and forest trees." In rose-budding, he adds, the bud 

 in the shoot should be commenced with, cutting out from it about the eighth 

 of an inch below the bud or eye, to about half an inch above it. Take out 

 the wood without touching the liber or inner bark; next make an incision in 

 the branch on which the bud is to be placed, quite close to the main stem, half 

 an inch long, with a cross-cut at the upper extremity, thus T. Raise the bark 

 with the end of the budding-knife, without bruising it, and insert the bud, 

 tying it well with worsted thread, giving one turn below, and two, or at most 

 three, above the eye of the bud. Worked in this way, they gi-ow out from 

 the axil of the branch, and look neat and workmanlike ; and after a season or 

 two, when headed back and healed over, it presents a fine bushy head, grow- 

 ing apparently out of the main stem, without scars, wounds, or knots. 



2S7. The shoots selected for budding or grafting, -whether for firuit or rose 

 trees, should be firm and well-ripened : watery shoots, or watery buds, are 

 valueless. For grafting, the branches should be of the preceding year, well 

 ripened imder an August sun, — Augusts, as French fruitists say. 



-288. The stock should be in a state of vegetation slightly in advance of the 

 graft ; otherwise the flow of the sap is insufficient to supply the wants 01 the 

 scion. In order to provide for this, the graft may be removed from the parent 

 branch a little before the operation, and buried under a north wall : there it 

 remains stationai'y, while the stock is advancing to maturity. 



- 289. It frequently happens that grafted fruit-trees, some at one period of 



K 



