220 



AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



of its growth. If this equal or exceed the graft in freedom, 

 healthful vigor of growth in the tree is secured ; if it fall much 

 short of the freedom of the graft growth, diseased or morbid 

 action is superinduced, and hence the dwarfing, premature 

 fruiting, and limitation of life. 



BUD SCION AND BUDS. 



a Fig. 103. a. Bud scion trimmed for use, and inverted 



as it must be held in cutting out the 

 b i\c buds. 



6. The bud as cut from the inverted scion, 



with the wood in. 



c. The bud turned to its natural direction, 

 with the wood taken out. 



The young shoot from which buds 

 and grafts are cut is called a scion, and 

 sometimes the graft itself is improper- 

 ly so called. The bud scion is prepared by trimming off 

 its leaves so far as the buds are full and ripe for use, cut- 

 ting each leaf stem a quarter or half an inch from the 

 bud, cutting off the butt end of the scion upon which the 

 buds may not be plump, and rejecting at discretion four 

 or six inches of its point, on which the buds, though 

 plump, may not be ripened. 

 The necessary bandages, which may be prepared from any 

 of the materials named for ties, page 218, should be cut into 

 lengths of from twelve to eighteen inches, and strung to a gir- 

 dle or through a button-hole, so as to be conveniently out of 

 the way until wanted. 



Taking the prepared scion in your left hand, with its point 

 toward you (Fig. 103 a), hold it firmly between your thumb and 

 the second joint of the middle finger, while the point of your 

 extended fore-finger supports and steadies it precisely under- 

 neath the bud which you intend to remove. 



With your budding-knife, perfectly keen, in your right hand, 

 held firmly by the fingers as when sharpening a lead-pencil, 

 with the right thumb laid, not under, but upon the scion, im- 

 mediately against the point of the left thumb, stretch the hand 

 until the knife rests flatly upon the scion, half an inch or a lit- 

 tle more back of the bud ; then entering the edge, carefully and 



