PROPAGATION BY BUDDING. 43 



bud pushed downwards under the bark, fig. 29. A band- 

 age of bass, corn-husk, or other substance, is wrapped round, 

 covering all parts but the bud. The pressure should be 

 just sufficient to keep the inserted portion closely to the 

 stock, but not such as to bruise or crush the bark, fig. 30. 

 The shoots containing the buds should be cut when so 

 mature as to be rather firm and hard in texture ; they are 

 usually in the best condition after the terminal bud has 

 formed. To prevent withering, the leaves must be imme- 

 diately cut off, as they withdraw and exhale rapidly the 

 moisture from the shoot ; about one quarter of an inch oi 

 the footstalks of the leaves should remain, to serve as handles 

 to the buds while inserting them, fig. 31. After being 

 thus divested of leaves, they may be safely kept 

 a week in a cool damp place, or sent hundreds 

 of miles in damp moss, or encased separately in 

 thin oil-cloth. 



When by growth, the bandage cuts into the 

 stock, usually in ten days to three weeks, it must 

 be removed. The bud remains dormant till the 

 following spring, when the stock is cut off two 

 inches or more above it. If cut closer, the end 

 A j 'j| of the stock becomes too dry, and the bud often 

 Vfl | perishes. All other buds must be then removed, 

 and all the vigor of the stock or branch thrown 

 into the remaining bud, which immediately 

 *-g commences a rapid growth. 



To secure a straight and erect growth, the 

 new shoot, when a few inches long, is tied to the 

 Fig. 31. remaining stump of the stock, fig 32. By ano- 

 ther month, no further support will be needed, and the stump 

 may be wholly cut away, and the wound allowed to heal by 

 the rapid formation of new wood. 



Buds inserted by midsummer, may be made to grow the 

 same season by heading down the stock when adhesion has 

 taken place ; but although often attempted, no advantage 

 has resulted from this practice, as the growth is compara- 

 tively feeble, and in consequence of its badly matured wood, 

 often perishes the following winter. Even where it escapes, 

 it does not exceed in size at the close of the second season 

 the straight and vigorous shoots of the spring. 



