24 



PROPAGATIOX OF VARIETIES. 



m 



case of failure, which is always more or less the case in stocks headed 

 down for grafting. 4th. The opportunity which it af lords, when per- 

 formed in good season, of repeating the 

 trial on the same stock. To these we 

 may add that budding is viniversaily pre- 

 ferred here for all stone-fruits, such as 

 Peaches, Apricots, and tlie like, as these 

 requii-e extra skill in grafting, but are 

 budded with great ease. 



7^ he pj'oper season for hudding fruit- 

 trees in this country is from the first of 

 July to the middle of September ; the dif- 

 ferent trees coming into season as fol- 

 lows: — Plums, Cherries, Apricots on 

 Plums, Apricots, Pears, Ap2:)les, Quinces, 

 Nectarines, and Peaches. Trees of con- 

 siderable size will require budding earlier 

 than young seedling stocks. But the 

 operation is always, and only, performed 

 when the harh of the stock ^xiris or- sep- 

 arates freely from the wood^ and when 

 the buds of the current year's growth 

 are somewhat plum}), and the young wood 

 is growing firm. Young stocks in the 

 nuisery, if thrifty, are usually planted 

 oat in the rows in the spring, and bud- 

 Budding-Knives, ded the same summer or a\itumii. 



Before commencing you should pro- 



h vide yourself with a budding-^-knife. Fig. 10 (aboiit four 



/ and a half inches long), having a round blade at one end, 



and an ivory handle, terminating in a thin rovmded edge 



called the haft, at the other. 



Fig. 11 represents another style or form of budding- 

 knife, by many considered preferable. The cutting por- 

 h tion extends about one-third around the end of the blade, 

 and about two-thirds of its length, leaving the lower pai't 

 dull. The roimded end of the blade to this knife obviates 

 the necessity of reversing it for openii^g the. bark when 

 setting a bxid, and thus facilitates work. 



In choosing your buds, select thrifty shoots that have 

 nearly done growing, and prepare what is called a stick 

 of buds, Fig. 12, by cutting oft' a few of the imperfect buds 

 at the lower, and such as may be yet too soft at the upper 

 ends, leaving only smooth, well-developed single buds ; 

 double buds being fruit -buds. 



Great care is essential in selecting biids, as often even 

 on sticks cut from young trees, and especialh' from bear- 

 ing trees, many of the single buds will be fo\ind developed 

 into fruit-buds, and are therefore unfitted for xise. The 

 form of a wood-bud is always long rather tlian round, and, 

 in the case of peaches, there are sometimes triple bxids, 

 A Btiok of Buds, the centre one of which is always a wood-lnid. 



Cut otF the leaves, allowing about half an inch of the 



