OF FRUIT TREES. 41 



on the outside of a healthy arid fruitful tree ; on no 

 account should an immature tree, or a bad bearer, 

 be resorted to for buds. For gathering the shoots 

 containing the buds, a cloudy day, or an early or 

 late hour, is chosen, it being thought that shoots, 

 gathered in full sunshine, perspire so much as to 

 drain the moisture from the buds. The buds 

 should be used as soon after being gathered as pos- 

 sible, and the whole operation should be quickly 

 performed. In taking off the bud from the twig, 

 the knife is inserted about half an inch above it, 

 and a thin slice of the bark, and wood along with 

 it, taken off, bringing out the knife about an inch 

 and a half below the bud. This lower part is af- 

 terwards shortened and dressed, and the leaf is cut 

 off, the stalk being left about half an inch long. 

 Perhaps it is better to insert the knife three quar- 

 ters of an inch below the bud, and to cut upwards ; 

 at least, this mode is practised in the Scottish nur- 

 series. The portion of wood is then taken out by 

 raising it from the bark, and pulling it downwards 

 or upwards, according as the cut has been made 

 from above or below. If the extraction of the 

 wood occasion a hole at the bud, that bud is spoilt, 

 and another must be prepared in its stead; as gar- 

 deners speak, the root of the bud has gone with 

 the wood, instead of remaining with the bark. 

 For the performance of the operation, provide a 

 sharp budding-knife, with a flat thin haft, of ivory, 

 suitable to open the bark of the stock for the ad- 

 mission of the bud, and also with a quantity of bass 

 strings, or shreds of Russian mats, or woollen yarn, 

 to bind round it when inserted. On a smooth part 

 of the bark of the stock a transverse section is now 

 made through the bark down to the wood ; from 

 this is made a longitudinal cut downward, about an 

 inch and a half long, so that the incision may some- 

 what resemble a Roman T: by means of the flat 

 ivory haft of the budding-knife the bark is raised 

 6 



