BUDDING AND GRAFTING. 109 



Time for Budding. In a general way, budding may be 

 done at any time when the bark will peel, providing the buds are 

 sufficiently matured on the new growth of the season. The proper 

 time will be influenced by the kind of stock used, the season, and 

 sometimes by attacks of insects and diseases. For instance, the 

 native plum is generally budded to best advantage about the tenth 

 of August, but should the stocks be attacked by some insect or dis- 

 ease that seriously injures the foliage in the latter part of July the 

 growth of the stocks will soon be checked, and the work must be 

 performed at once or not at all. A period of severe drouth may 

 check growth, and in a similar way make early budding necessary. 

 If the stocks are growing very fast it is often best to delay the 

 operation until the wood has become somewhat hardened, or else 

 its rapid growth may cover up the inserted bud. If considerable 

 pruning of the stocks is necessary to make a place for the bud it 

 should be done at least two weeks before budding is commenced, 

 for the heavy pruning of any plant when it is in active growth re- 

 sults in a serious check to the growth, and if done just when the 

 buds are inserted it may prevent the success of the operation. The 

 ordinary season for budding in the northern states is from the 

 middle of July to the first of September, and the earliness or late- 

 ness at which a variety is most successfully budded depends on the 

 condition of growth. The stocks that stop growing early in the 

 season are budded early, and those that grow until autumn are 

 budded late. The conditions for success are : 



(1) The stock and scion must be perfectly healthy and free from in- 

 sects. If either of them are weak or sickly unsatisfactory results 

 may be expected. To this end everything necessary should be 

 done to keep off insects and diseases. 



(2) The buds should be well developed in, the axils of the leaves on the 

 young shoots from which the bads are to be taken. It seldom happens 

 that they are in this condition until the bud at the end is formed, 

 but sometimes the buds in the center of the twigs will be large 

 enough to grow, while those at the base and at the extreme tip are 

 still quite small. In Fig. 80 the buds shown between B and are 

 supposed to be mature enough for budding, while those at the base 

 are too small, and those at the tip, beyond the cross-line, are too 

 soft. If the buds are thought to be too immature they may readily 

 be developed by pinching off the tips of the twigs. In ten or 

 twelve days after such pinching, of even a very soft shoot, its buds 

 will be fit for working. 



(3) The bark must separate easily from the ivood on the stocks to 

 be budded. This will take place only when they are growing 

 rapidly. 



(4) A sharp, thin knife is absolutely necessary. 



(5) The work mast be done rapidly, and the buds firmly and 

 evenly tied into place. No wax is needed. 



