198 PROPAGATION OF PLANTS. 



If the stocks are very vigorous and are budded early, 

 there will be danger that the ligatures may cut into the 

 bark, as the stock increases in diameter. It would be 

 safest to leave the ligatures on the stock until the follow- 

 ing spring, provided the budding could always be done 

 at just the right moment to insure a firm union, and no 

 more, when frosts come to check growth, but this so sel- 

 dom occurs, that in a majority of instances the ties will 

 need to be loosened within ten or fifteen days after the 

 buds are inserted. It is not always advisable to remove 

 the ligatures, but merely to loosen them .sufficiently to 

 admit of an expansion of the stock, and prevent strangu- 

 lation and the forcing of the bud to make a premature 

 growth. If the buds should be forced into growth, there 

 is nothing to be done but to head back the stocks and let 

 the buds grow as rapidly as possible until checked by cold 

 weather. Some of the lower buds on these premature 

 shoots may escape destruction the ensuing winter ; if so, 

 they should be head-ed back to a strong, well-developed 

 bud, and this may produce a strong and vigorous shoot. 



Under ordinary. circumstances, budded stocks should 

 not be headed back until the following spring, and then 

 severed at a point four or five inches above the inserted 

 bud. This stump serves as a support to which the new 

 growth may be tied, to prevent it from being broken out 

 by the wind. A|l sprouts which may push out from the 

 stock, either below or above the bud, must be jobbed off 

 from time to time, as they appear. Later in summer, 

 when the new stem has become somewhat mature, the 

 stump of the stock may be cut away with a sloping cut, 

 at the lowest point opposite the bud. With weak, slen- 

 der-growing trees, the young plant may require staking 

 for the first year or two, in order to secure a straight stem. 



The rapidity with which budding can be done by an 

 expert is astonishing to a novice or an amateur who will 

 spend several minutes in properly placing a single bud. 



