26 FRUIT BOOK. 



shield or T budding. It is thus performed : 

 Select a smooth part of the stock ; then with the 

 budding-knife make a horizontal cut across the 

 bark, quite through to the firm wood; from the mid- 

 dle of this transverse cut, make a slit downwards, 

 an inch or more long, going also quite through to 

 the wood ; this done, proceed to cut out from the 

 scion the bud, cutting nearly half way into the 

 wood. We very rarely take out the wood from 

 the bud, a method which we have always prac- 

 tised. Downing calls it the " American method." 

 There are precautions, as Lindley justly observes, 

 in budding as in grafting. " It is indispensable 

 that the bud which is employed should be fully 

 formed, or what gardeners call ripe. If it is im- 

 perfectly formed or unripe, it may not be capable 

 of that subsequent elongation upwards and down- 

 wards, upon which the whole success of the prac- 

 tice depends. Great care should be taken in rais- 

 ing the bark for the insertion of the bud, that the 

 cambium be not disturbed or injured. This cam- 

 bium is a secretion between the wood and the 

 bark." Seedling trees, which were budded in 

 the summer, should in the following spring, when 

 the bud commences pushing, be cut off slanting, 

 to within three inches of the bud, and early in Ju- 

 ly be finished, or the snag cut smoothly to the bud 

 or shoot. Budding generally succeeds best when 

 performed in cloudy weather, or in the morning 

 or evening ; for the great power of the mid-day 

 sun is apt to dry and shrink the cuttings and buds. 



RAISING FRUIT TREES FROM SEEDS. 



Pear trees for stocks are raised from seeds 

 sown usually in the fall. The most successful ex- 



