BUDDING. 53 



SLIPPING AND QUILLING. 



Slipping the bud or bark is a very common expression 

 among budders. It occurs in the act of taking the bud 

 from the stem. In cutting the bud from the stem a small 

 piece of the wood is usually removed with it. But when 

 the bark is flowing freely, budders only cut through the 

 bark, and then, with their thumb and finger, peel or slip 

 the bud, without any wood, from the stem, and this- is 

 called slipping the bud. It is speedier than the other 

 method, and quite as good, as there is no need whatever 

 of any wood with the bud. 



Quitting, on the other hand, occurs when the flow of 

 sap is deficient, and the bark begins to tighten on the 

 stock that is budded. The budder then provides himself 

 with a goose-quill, cuts away about half the barrel as for a 

 pen, but, instead of pointing the side he retains, only 

 rounds it off in the form of a semicircle. This he inserts 

 in the bark of the stock, at the intersection of the verti- 

 cal and transverse incisions, heretofore described, and 

 slips it down between the bark and the wood a sufficient 

 distance to admit the bud. And this is call quitting. In- 

 stead, however, of using a quill, the budding-knife is 

 now provided with a horn or bone point on the opposite 

 end to the knife proper, which answers the purpose of 

 the old quill, and is more convenient. 



When the rows run north and south, the buds should 

 be put in on the west side ; when east* and west, on the 

 north side. This will enable them the better to resist the 

 north and west winds the next season, when the young, 

 tender budded stock, full of sap and foliage, is easily 

 parted from the stem, but capable of much greater re- 

 sistance when the pressure is towards the stem, than/rom 

 it. The proper place to insert the bud is about one and a 

 half or two inches above the ground; the nearer the 

 ground the better. 



