58 THE FARMER AT HOME. 



smooth, and much less numerous. The cellular centre of a bud is 

 the seat of its vitality ; the scales that cover it are the parts towards 

 the development of which its vital energies are first directed. Fruit 

 buds, in most cases, are distinguishable from the wood buds by their 

 rounder and fuller form, the scales that cover them are broader and less 

 numerous, and in the spring the] begin to swell and show signs of 

 opening at an earlier period. 



BUDDING. This is a method of propagation practiced for various 

 sorts of trees, but particularly those of the fruit kinds. It is the only 

 method which can be had recourse to with certainty for continuing 

 and multiplying the approved varieties of many sorts of fruits and 

 other trees, as, although their seed readily grow, and become trees, 

 not one out of a hundred, so raised, produces anything like the original, 

 and but very few that are good. But trees or stocks raised in this 

 manner, or being budded with the proper sorts, the jDuds produce 

 invariably the same kind of tree, fruit, and flower, continuing unal- 

 terably the same afterwards. The object in view in budding is almost 

 always that of grafting, and depends on the same principle, all the 

 difference between a bud and a scion being, that a bud is a shoot or 

 scion in embryo ; in other respects, budding is conducted on the same 

 principles as grafting. In every case, the bud and the stock must be 

 botanically related. An apple may be budded on a pear or thorn, but 

 not upon a plum or peach. Common budding is performed from the 

 beginning of July to the middle of August. 



BUFFALO. If we should compare the common cow with the 

 bison, the difference between them will doubtless appear great ; but 

 when we draw a resemblance between that and the buffalo, no two 

 animals can be nearer alike. Both are equally submissive to the yoke, 

 and both are employed in the same domestic scene ; notwithstanding 

 which, they have such an aversion to each other, that were there but 

 one of each kind, there would be an end of the race. The buffalo, 

 upon the whole, is by no means so beautiful as the animal which it is 

 like ; his figure is more clumsy and awkward, and he carries his head 

 nearer the ground ; his limbs are not so well covered with flesh, and 

 his tail is much more naked of hair ; his body is shorter and thicker 

 than the cow, and his legs are longer in proportion to his size ; his 

 head is smaller, his horns not so round, and his skin is not near so 

 well covered with hair ; his flesh is hard and disagreeable to the 

 taste, and has a very strong and disagreeable smell ; the milk of the 

 females is much inferior to the cow's, but in warm countries it is used 

 for butter and cheese. 



The veal of the young buffalo is equally unpalatable with the beef 

 which is produced from the old, and the most valuable part of the 

 whole animal is generally allowed to be the hide, the leather of which 

 is famous for impenetrability and for the softness and smoothness of 

 the wear. The ?hief use of these animals is for drawing 



