GEXERAf. PRACTICE. BUDDING. 1,5 



trees of sufficient height for budding or grafting as standards, the stocks will need 

 two or three years' growth ; their side growths should be trimmed in a little, but only 

 enough to give the growing point the needful vigour, as side growths in moderation 

 assist the thickening of the stem. All trees, however, are best worked low, but for 

 supporting weakly varieties of spreading habit it is better that the stock be allowed to 

 grow up to form the stem ; or a vigorous upright-growing variety worked on a stock not 

 having the needful characteristic, and allowed to grow up, will serve the same purpose, 

 and generally better, as such are often double-grafted or worked. Similarly with trees 

 raised from cuttings or layers of the Paradise and quince, for stocks all weaklings are 

 discarded, every possible care being taken to insure vigorous stocks, but the layers are 

 treated in different ways. Some practitioners in layering do not leave more than two 

 buds above ground ; others leave the shoots their full length, and, in placing earth about 

 the base of the stools, do not so much as remove the eyes buried. Where two buds 

 only are left, one of the shoots must be cut off when 4 to 6 inches long, and then 

 the other will grow vigorously perhaps a yard in the season. When the layers are 

 not topped, the side shoots must be trimmed to a few leaves, but they are generally 

 allowed to grow until autumn, when they are detached ; the side growths should then 

 be cut clean off, and the buds carefully taken out of the stems where they have been or 

 are to be covered with soil. The layers ought to be taken off the stools directly the 

 leaves have fallen, planting a foot apart, in rows 36 inches asunder. After one or two 

 years' growth they are ready for budding or grafting. 



BUDDING. 



Every sound bud contains the rudiments of a plant. Buds were very early employed 

 as a means of propagation, and were advocated by Parkinson (1640) in preference to 

 grafts for stone fruits ; and so advantageous has the practice of budding proved that it 

 has now become the most prevalent mode of increasing nearly all kinds of fruit trees. 

 In budding, as the nourishment has to be afforded to the bud from the alburnum, or 

 young outer wood layers, of the stock, this should not be exposed to the air longer than 

 is absolutely necessary for inserting the bud, for if the wood becomes dry in the slightest 

 degree, vegetation on that part is permanently destroyed. The alburnum of the stock 

 supplies sap, which is elaborated in the bud, and, through its bark, is returned the 

 peculiar juice from which the woody matter is formed that unites it to the stock. All 



the deposit of wood is between that line and the bud ; a confused line always marks 



Q2 



