BUDDING, OR INOCULATION. 25 



BUDDING, OR INOCULATION. 



Budding differs from grafting in this, that a 

 portion of a stem is not made to strike root on 

 another stem, but that, on the contrary, a bud is 

 introduced beneath the bark of the stock, and 

 there induced to strike root. Budding is com- 

 monly practised upon stone fruits, such as peaches, 

 cherries, and plums ; and, provided the stock is 

 small, we think it preferable to grafting, for near- 

 ly all kinds of fruit. The object in budding is 

 the same as in grafting, and depends on the same 

 principle : all the difference between a bud and a 

 scion is, that a bud is a shoot or scion in embryo. 

 When grafting has been omitted, or has failed in 

 spring, budding comes in as an auxiliary in sum- 

 mer. The season for performing this operation 

 upon pears and apples is from the middle of July 

 to the last of August ; but upon stone fruits the 

 month of September is early enough to perform 

 this operation ; for when these are budded too 

 early, they are apt to shoot the same year, which 

 shoots, being weakly, are either killed in the win- 

 ter, or, if they escape the frost, they never make 

 much progress. It is always better that the buds 

 should remain dormant until spring, when they 

 will shoot forth with vigor. The buds used are 

 found in the axillae of the leaf of the present year ; 

 the best buds are those on the middle of a young 

 shoot, not those at the lower end. Stocks for 

 budding may, in general, be much smaller than 

 for grafting, as the operation may be performed 

 on the same year's shoot. The French enumerate 

 twenty-three varieties of budding ; but the varie- 

 ty in general use with us is the following, called 

 3 



