66 
CITRUS AURANTIUM. 
' 
usually occurs in the northern hemisphere in the month of March. For small 
grafts, less than half of an inch in diameter, the whip, or splice method should 
be adopted, and for larger ones, the saddle mode is preferable, as practised in the 
apple and pear. But the most sure and expeditious method is that of spring 
budding, by which the bark of the stock, as early in the season as it will sepa- 
rate from the wood, is cut like the letter T inverted, (thus, j,) as shown by (a) 
in the adjoining figure ; whereas, in summer budding, 
it forms a T in its erect position. The horizontal 
edges of this cut in the stock, and of the shield bark, 
containing the bud, should be brought into the most per- 
fect contact, as denoted by (6;) because the union of 
the bark in spring takes place by means of the ascent of 
the sap, whereas, in summer budding, it is supposed to 
be caused by its descent. The parts should then be 
immediately bound with water-proof bass (c ) with- 
out applying either grafting-clay or grafting-wax. 
The buds may be inserted either in a healthful branch, 
or in a' stock near the ground. In general, two buds are sufficient for one stock ; 
and these should be of the same variety ; as two sorts seldom grow with equal vig- 
our. The bass ligature, which confines the bud, may be removed, if the season be 
moist, in a month after budding ; but if it be hot and dry, not for six weeks, at 
least. As soon as the inserted buds show signs of vegetation, the stock or 
branch, containing them, should be pruned down, so as to leave one or two 
buds or shoots above. If the stock is allowed to have a leading shoot above the 
inserted buds, and this shoot is not shortened, the buds inserted probably will 
not show many signs of vegetation for several weeks. 
Though orange-trees will grow exceedingly well in large pots and boxes, yet 
to have them produce the finest crop of fruit, they should be planted in the 
ground like peach-trees, and trained like them, or as standard cherries in a con- 
servatory. The latter mode has by far the best effect, especially when the stems 
of the trees are seven or eight feet high, and the head forms a handsome cone ; 
but the largest fruit is produced when the trees are planted against the back- 
wall trellis of a narrow house, and treated like peach-trees. 
At Genoa and Florence, orange-trees are grown in a strong yellow clay, which 
is highly manured ; and this soil is considered by the first Italian gardeners as 
best suited to their natures. In France, in preparing a compost for them, they 
endeavour to compensate for quantity by quality ; because the pots or boxes, in 
which the plants are placed, ought always to be as small as possible, relatively 
to the size of the tree. The following is the composition recommended : " To a 
fresh loam, which contains a third of clay, a third of sand, and a third of vege- 
table matter, and which has lain a long time in a heap, add an equal bulk of 
half-rotten barnyard manure. The following year turn it over twice. The 
succeeding year mix it with nearly one half its bulk of decomposed horse 
manure. Turn it over twice or three times, and the winter before using, add 
one twelfth part of sheep manure, a twentieth of pigeon dung, and a twentieth 
of dried ordure." Mr. Henderson, already mentioned, takes one part of light- 
brown mould from a piece of ground that has not been cropped, nor manured for 
many years ; one part of peat earth, such as is used for growing heaths ; two 
parts of river, or pit sand, if it be free from saline substances ; and one part of 
rotted hot-bed dung, with one part of rotted leaves of trees, and mixes them all 
well together, so as to form a compost soil of uniform quality. 
The usual mode of propagating the orange in Florida, is to plant the seeds 
and wait patiently for about twenty years, till the trees become of a sufficient 
