264 PLANT PROPAGATION 



would follow removal of the whole top early in the sea- 

 son, several cuts of the top are made so the bud shoot will 

 not have too great a strain put upon it. Sometimes the 

 stock tops are bent over, or broken (270), twisted or par- 

 tially stripped of leaves and twigs or otherwise treated so 

 the bud shoot will gradually accustom itself to its work. 

 In due time, of course, the stock is cut off. The ligatures 

 must be cut sooner than in the North, say in a week to 

 ten days, depending on how vigorously the stock is grow- 

 ing. Instead of raffia or bast, strips of somewhat elastic 

 cotton are sometimes employed as tier, because they 

 "give" more with trunk expansion. 



350. Summer budding of apples. Apples, pears and 

 other tree fruits are often summer budded, but the stocks 

 have grown in the nursery row a year or two. Some- 

 times the buds used are dormant, having been cut and 

 stored, like cions for cleft grafting (312), sometimes cur- 

 rent season's growth. This plan is annually becoming 

 more popular, partly because the nurserymen think they 

 thus get better trees than by grafting and partly because 

 the nurseryman is thus enabled to keep his men busy to 

 better advantage by extending the work over a longer 

 period. For top working trees, either those that failed 

 to "take" the previous season or those established in or- 

 chards, this method also has its obvious advantages. 

 The buds grow as do cions in cleft grafting, so a full 

 season's time is gained. 



351. Plate budding (Fig. 200) Instead of making one 

 longitudinal cut in the stock, two of equal length are 

 made parallel. The upper ends are then joined by a cut 

 and the bark lifted, thus forming a rectangular flap still 

 attached below to the stock and 1 inch to \ l / 2 inches long. 

 A bud on a piece of bark, but with no wood, is cut to fit 

 the space, inserted, covered by the flap which is made to 

 cover it, and tied. From then forward treatment is the 

 same as for shield budding (340). Two slight modifica- 

 tions of this method may be noted : The flap may be 



