42 FLORIDA FRUITS ORANGES. 



bud, boasting of how many he can do in an hour. True, 

 it is a quick way of playing at budding, in one sense ; but 

 when, by and by, he comes back again and again to re- 

 place dead buds and search for fresh spots on the poor, 

 devoted stock, where its once smooth bark is not all rough- 

 ened and scarred by old wounds; if then, we repeat, he 

 will only keep count of the time thus occupied after the 

 work should have been completed, and the time lost in the 

 growth of the buds while the season is passing relentlessly 

 on, he will come to the conclusion that a little more time 

 and care in the first place would have been time and 

 trouble saved, and loss of buds and of the growing season 

 saved also. And therefore we would banish the ''pen 

 buds " as the resource of lazy, ne'er-do-wells, who will reap 

 as they sow. 



The one kind of budding that is pre-eminent over all 

 others for its invariable success, if properly done, is called 

 "shield budding." See that your stock is cleared of all 

 twigs that may interfere with the wrappings ; then make 

 a vertical slit about an inch and a half long, any where 

 from four inches to two feet above the ground, then make 

 another cut across at the base, the two cuts presenting the 

 appearance of the letter T reversed thus, i ; the cross-cut 

 is often made at the top, but it is not the best way. Now 

 pass the point of your knife, or the flat handle, if it is a 

 regular budding-knife, carefully along the upright cut, 

 slightly raising the edges, giving the knife a certain little 

 twist, easily learned, at the base so as to leave the corners a 

 little turned back like the * ' dog-ears " of a book. Now take 

 your knife and carefully cut off a bud from your "stick," 

 take as little of the wood as possible, and let the bark ex- 

 tend about half an inch below and above the bud ; now 

 take this little strip in your hand and, with the woody 

 side upward, bend the end slightly till the thin layer of 



