188 



PROPAGATION OF PLANTS. 



around the stock so as to hold the bud in place. Bud- 

 ding knives are made after various patterns ; one that 

 is commonly used has an ivory or bone handle, made 

 very thin at the end, that is used to peel the bark 

 from the stock where the bud is to be inserted, figure 

 70. Another form of budding knife is made with a 

 horn handle, with a small tapering piece of ivory fastened 

 in the end. These knives, of various sizes and shapes, 

 can be had at the seed-stores, but another and quite 

 a different form of budding knife is shown in figure 



Fig. 70. COMMONLY USED BUDDING KNIFE. 



^1 ? and known as the "Yankee Budding Knife." It 

 is a small pocket knife with a thin blade, round at 

 the end. The cutting portion extends about one-third 

 around the end of the blade and about two-thirds of its 

 length, leaving the lower part dull. Although this form 

 of budding knife has been in use in some of our older 

 nurseries for the past fifty years or more, still it does not 

 appear to have been manufactured for the general trade, 

 and only on special orders from nurserymen. I have 



Fig. 71. YANKEE BUDDING KNIFE. 



used this knife for the past thirty years, and prefer it to 

 those with a bone or ivory spatula for lifting the bark ; 

 for in using the Yankee Budding Knife there is no 

 time wasted in reversing it, as is necessary with those 

 of the form above mentioned. The rounded end of 

 the blade is used for lifting the bark, and it is far more 

 convenient than any form of knife that must be reversed 

 in the hand every time a bud is inserted. This Yankee 

 Budding Knife is an implement especially adapted ta 



