266 PLANT PROPAGATION 



parallel cuts one-half inch to one inch apart around a 

 stock, joining these by a cut at right angles, removing the 

 ring, fitting in a bud-bearing piece of bark and tying as 

 in shield budding. This method is popular for budding 

 pecan and walnut. The work is best done in summer 

 when the bark peels readily. The buds must be taken 

 from twigs rather younger than the stocks. 



358. Whistle or tubular budding, another modification 

 of flute budding, consists in slipping off an 

 inch or so of bark at the end of a shoot and replacing it 

 with a similar piece bearing a bud of a desired variety. 



359. Budding old peach trees For old peach trees that re- 

 quired new wood an Australian experimenter sharpened a piece 

 of bone like a lead pencil, fitted it to a handle, made incisions in the 

 bark of 10-year-old trees and fitted buds in the holes. The buds 

 were held in position by small pieces of leather, held in place by 

 upholsterers' enameled gimp pins, which did not rust and which 

 became loose as the buds swelled. An advantage claimed is that 

 the method does not interfere with bearing while the buds are being 

 matured. Neither clay nor wax is needed. 



360. Stock sucker's influence H. M. Stringfellow of Texas found 

 that when a peach tree was budded high (18 inches) and developed 

 a sucker below the bud, the branch from the bud gradually failed 

 and died. He also noted that where cions on budded stock were 

 planted deep enough to send out their own roots, Dwarfing and 

 even killing of the stock roots followed. He therefore recommends 

 high budding (12 to 15 inches from the ground), in order to secure 

 long-lived budded trees, because this, he contends, will allow rea- 

 sonably deep planting without burying any part of the cion. 



361. Winter budding of peaches in Texas, according to R. H. 

 Price, was experimentally done by the following method : Cuttings 

 were taken when the sap was dormant. A slide of bark was cut 

 down the stock, but left attached at the lower end. Part of the 

 top of the loose strip was then cut off, the bud of a desired variety 

 fitted over the cut place and bound on firmly with raffia. The 

 stocks were then kept in sphagnum moss till spring, when they 

 were planted. All but one of the 50 made strong shoots during 

 the growing season. 



362. Top working peach. When peach trees begin to 

 fruit and are found worthless, the question is, Will it pay 

 to top work them? Experience has proved that usually 

 time and money will be saved by pulling them out if over 

 four or five years old rather than "dehorning" them, 

 waiting till water sprouts or other limbs in desirable po- 



