HOW TO BUD AND GRAFT. 41 



Now, it may be presumptuous in us to meddle with this 

 time-honored recipe, but still we will venture to insinuate, 

 with all due respect, that in our own experience the rosin 

 may, with advantage, either be omitted entirely, or else 

 only half as much be added to the beeswax and tallow 

 instead of double as much. We find that the strips dipped 

 in the latter only are fully as effective and far more agree- 

 able to handle; neither do they, as some claim, become 

 rancid without the rosin. 



Lastly, a very sharp-pointed, thin-bladed knife is neces- 

 sary and now we are ready to select our scions, which, as 

 we have elsewhere stated, must be taken from, as well as 

 inserted in, a growing plant, or one at least with "loose 

 bark." Considerable judgment must be exercised in this 

 selection, as a "stick" of buds may be either too old or 

 too young. It is too old if the shoot taken be of more 

 than a year's growth; too young if it be not fully ma- 

 tured the woody parts hardened and the embryo bud 

 developed beneath the axilla of the leaf. It is always 

 best to use the growth of the current season just as soon 

 as this stage of maturity has been reached, and a short ex- 

 perience will enable you to judge accurately when this 

 point has been attained. These remarks apply to all scions, 

 whether orange, lemon, peach, plum, apple, or any other 

 of the great vegetable tribe. 



And now, at last, we come to the practical details of 

 the actual art, for it is an art, of budding. There are 

 several modes of introducing the scion to the stock ; of 

 these there is one largely practiced, we are sorry to say, 

 that can not be reprehended too severely. A man cuts 

 off a short stick containing two or three buds, shapes one 

 end to a flat point like a pen, then makes a little cut cross- 

 wise in the stock, thrusts the "pen bud" down into the 

 slit, and passes on to scar another tree and waste another 



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