BUDDING OR INOCULATION. 19 



this done, proceed to cut out from the scion the 

 bud, cutting nearly half way into the wood ; should 

 the stock be small upon which you are operating, 

 you can take out the wood from the bud with the 

 thumb nail or point of the knife, observing that the 

 eye or germ of the bud remains perfect ; if not, and 

 a little hole appears on the under part, it is imper- 

 fect, or, as gardeners express it, the bud has lost its 

 root, and another must be prepared. We, however, 

 very rarely take out the wood, but insert the bud 

 with the wood attached. 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 imperfectly formed or unripe, it may not be 

 capable of that subsequent elongation upwards and 

 downwards, upon which the whole success of the 

 practice depends. Great care should be taken in 

 raising the bark for the insertion of the bud, that 

 the cambium be not disturbed or injured. This 

 cambium 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 not until the 

 second season 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. 



