22 THE ORCHARD AND PRTJIT GARDEN 



seedling peaches and pears, will bear earlier than the 

 parent trees, and produce finer fruit, if they are inserted 

 on robust stocks in a similar though inferior manner 

 to scions so used; but if pears are budded before the 

 end of August, they will produce branches and no 

 bloom. It is not necessary that the inserted bud 

 should take the position of a bud removed, but some 

 persons consider that it does better so placed. A bud 

 will often take more readily than a graft, and it has 

 another advantage : if a graft fails in the spring, the 

 bud may be inserted at its right time, and so save a 

 year. 



Buds take well on shoots of one or two years' growth, 

 but not on old wood. The time for budding is July or 

 August, according to the season, and the weather should 

 be mild and moist. Early in the morning, after 3 P.M., 

 or in the evening of a cloudy day, after gentle rain, and 

 when there is no wind, is best. The stock may be 

 smaller than for grafting, and it is rather best to put 

 the bud on the north side, but it must be on a clear 

 portion of the stem, free from knots. It is necessary 

 that the stock should be in a thriving state, i. e., suffi- 

 ciently supplied with sap, and should have matured its 

 growth for the season, which generally happens in 

 peaches, apricots, cherries, and plums, about the middle 

 of August ; but from the middle of July, favourable 

 states of stocks and buds, and favourable states of 

 v^eather, should be carefully watched and taken advan- 

 tage of. Watering the stock and the tree from which 

 the buds are to be taken the evening before, will 

 generally do good. 



The bud should be from wood of the current year: 

 that to be taken for budding is the little bud which 

 pushes at the axis of the leaf-stalk, and it is cleanly 

 cut with a small oval shield of the bark of the stem 

 behind, and this shield is cut deep enough to include a 

 thin shave of the wood. Choose one at the root of a 

 well- developed, faultless leaf. The buds are ready when 

 the bark will easily separate from the wood, and one 

 from about the middle of a shoot should be fixed on, as 



