302 BUDDING OR GRAFTING BY DETACHED BUDS. 



grafting without disfiguring the stock, in the event of the want of success ; 

 to prove the blossoms or fruits of any tree, in which case blossom-huds are 

 chosen instead of leaf-buds ; and, finally, as the easiest mode of distributing 

 a great many kinds on the branches of a tree, as in the case of roses, camel- 

 lias, and fruit-trees. 



676. In performing the operation, mild, cloudy weather should be chosen, 

 because during hot, dry, windy weather, the viscous surfaces exposed to the 

 air are speedily dried by evaporation, by which the healing process is 

 retarded ; besides, the bark never rises so well in very dry, windy weather as 

 it does in weather which is still, warm, and cloudy, but without rain. The 

 first step is to ascertain that the bark of the scion and that of the stock 

 will separate freely from the wood beneath them ; then procure the cutting 

 from which the shields or tubes of bark are to be taken. If the budding 

 is to be performed in spring, the cuttings from which the buds are to be 

 taken should be cut from the tree the preceding autumn, and kept through 

 the winter by burying their lower ends in the ground, in a cool, shady 

 situation, as in the case of grafting by detached scions. When these cut- 

 tings are to be used, their lower ends should be placed in water, to keep them 

 fresh, while the operation of cutting shields or rings from them is going on. 

 If, on the other hand, the budding is to be performed in summer, which is 

 almost always the case in Britain, then the cutting from which the buds 

 are to be taken is not cut off the parent tree till just before the operation is 

 to be performed. The cutting should be a shoot of the current year's wood, 

 which has done growing, or nearly so, and its leaves should be cut off, to 

 prevent the waste of sap by evaporation, as soon as it is taken from the tree; 

 the end of the cutting should then be put in water to keep it fresh, and the 

 buds taken off as wanted. When the leaves are cut off, care should be 

 taken to leave part of the petiole of each, to handle the shield or ring by 

 when putting it on the stock. A slit is next made in the stock, or a ring of 

 bark taken off; and the shield or ring from the cutting, containing a bud 

 or buds which are ripe or nearly so, is introduced in the manner which will 

 be described in treating of the different modes of performing the operation. 

 Tying the bud on the stock generally completes the operation, though 

 sometimes grafting-wax is employed to cover the junction of the shield or 

 ring. In British gardens the grafting -knife is commonly used for budding, 

 but its sharp point is found in delicate cases to injure the soft wood ; for 

 which reason, on the Continent, a knife is preferred which has a rounded 

 extremity ; and these knives, which are manufactured by Preist, Oxford- 

 street, and other cutlers, are now coming into use in England. An 

 improvement on these knives is shown in fig. 236, in which the point of 



Fig. 236. GodsalVs budding knife improved. 



the blade is curvilinear and is two-edged, and the handle has a neck or 

 narrow part, which may be firmly grasped by the little finger when tying 

 on the ligature, instead of the usual butcher-like practice of putting the 

 knife in the mouth. Instead of having a separate knife for budding, 



