HORTICULTURE 281 



Time to Bud. Both budding and grafting should be done in 

 the spring. Fall budding has proved a failure on account of the 

 flow of sap which prevents the adherence of the bud to the stock, 

 but the operation may be readily performed in the spring as soon as 

 the bark will slip freely. This operation may be as easily and suc- 

 cessfully performed on a persimmon tree as it can be on an apple 

 tree. Many farmers have growing on their farms trees which are 

 either barren or which bear interior fruit. By top-working such 

 trees with improved varieties, tney may soon be transformed into 

 trees of great value. In working over such trees the grafting should 

 be done in the younger and more vigorous branches. Scions should 

 not be inserted into large branches, but these should be cut off and 

 allowed to throw out several strong, thrifty shoots which may be 

 grafted the second season. The surplus shoots may then be removed. 



Transplanting. The persimmon is more difficult to transplant 

 successfully than almost any other kind of fruit tree. The tree has 

 a long center or tap root, and if too much of this root is cut off in 

 transplanting, the tree will die. The safest plan is to secure quite 

 young trees, one or two years from the graft being preferable. Older 

 trees may be successfully planted if they have been transplanted 

 once or twice while growing in the nursery. The soil where the trees 

 are to be transplanted should be thoroughly pulverized with a sub- 

 soil plow to a depth of at least eight inches below the bottom roots, 

 so that an abundance of moisture may be supplied to the young 

 growing roots during the first season. 



Transplanting is most successfully done in autumn, as the tree 

 then becomes adjusted to its place by spring, and the roots, if prop- 

 erly pruned before planting, will be nicely calloused and ready to 

 throw out their fibrous 'rootlets as soon as the warm days of spring 

 appear. 



The persimmon may be greatly improved by cultivation. It is 

 especially necessary that the trees be well cultivated for the first few 

 years after planting until they become adapted to their new surround- 

 ings. The trees will stand a great deal of neglect when once well 

 started, but should not be subjected to such treatment if one expects 

 to secure the best results. In the wild state the trees will thrive on 

 very thin land, and under seemingly discouraging circumstances, 

 and still bear fruit of very good quality, but the largest and best 

 fruit is only produced when the trees are kept in a perfectly healthy 

 condition by cultivation. 



Varieties. Almost every tree is a variety of itself, as the per- 

 simmon, like the apple, does not reproduce itself from seed with 

 certainty. In the wild state it is sometimes found growing in clusters 

 of ten or a dozen trees, and all apparently of the same variety, but 

 these probably came from the roots of the original or parent tree. 



The fruit differs in size from that of a small wild plum to that 

 of the large cultivated kinds, an inch and a half to two inches in 

 diameter. They also vary greatly in form ; some are globular, others 

 either conical or oblong, those of the globular form predominating. 

 The following are some of the varieties: Shoto, Early Bearing, 



