44 FLORIDA FRUITS ORANGES. 



the lower end does not project below the cross-cut; this 

 accomplished, start the wrapping just below the lower end 

 of the cut, holding the end firmly while you wrap, pulling 

 tightly all the while. 



Some employ two wrappings, one above and one below 

 the bud, as it is all important to leave the bud itself and 

 only the bud exposed to light and air; but a skillful 

 worker will use only one strip, giving a certain downward 

 slant to the last turn above that will carry it below the 

 bud in front, and then continuing the wrapping until the 

 cut is well covered, tying the strips, as we have already 

 said. In two weeks you will know whether your work has 

 been "for better or for worse;" the former, certainly, if 

 all has been done "decently and in order." The junction 

 always takes place at the top first ; therefore, as the edges 

 swell and unite, the top wrapping should be first loosened, 

 say in ten days after the sprout has started, and the lower 

 wraps a week later ; it is better to loosen at first than to 

 remove them entirely, as the newly-formed bark needs 

 some protection for a month or two. 



Having thus investigated the mysteries of the more pop- 

 ular art of budding, let us next " interview " that which 

 may well be termed its " elder brother." 



Far, far back in the olden times, the theory and practice 

 of grafting or multiplying and perpetuating remarkable 

 varieties or monstrosities, by the union of a young shoot 

 from one kind of plant with the stem of another, was al- 

 most as well understood as at the present day. It is not 

 an art which admits of much progress or alteration. There 

 is but one means of securing success, and therefore as we 

 graft nowadays so did the ancient Greeks and Jews and 

 Chinese before us. The New Testament refers to the art 

 as practiced by the Jews ; Pliny and Virgil tell us that it 

 was familiar to the Greeks ; but nowhere can we trace the 



