HOW TO GET THE TREES 



47 



keep the young trees growing rapidly throughout 

 the summer until budding time. For this reason 

 seeds should never be planted except upon light, 

 warm, well-drained, rich soil, in a high state of cul- 

 tivation. The budding season begins, according to 

 locality and weather, from August i to September 

 i, and continues until perhaps the latter part of 

 September. Whether they are ready for budding or 

 not must be determined by inspection of the stocks 

 themselves and not by reference to the calendar 

 or consulting the moon. The trees should be grown 

 to the size of a lead pencil or larger and be in a vig- 

 orous state of growth, and the bark near the base of 

 the stock should peel up easily when cut as the bark 

 peels from a willow at whistle-making time. The 

 easy slipping of the bark is the critical test. 



The propagator now supplies himself with a suit- 

 able budding knife, with some strips of raffia and 

 with scions in the form of budding sticks cut from 

 reliable fruiting peach trees of the variety which 

 he wishes to reproduce. Usually he takes with .him 

 a healthy boy with freckles on his nose to do the 

 rough work. The job then proceeds. 



The boy with the straw hat goes ahead and rubs 

 the branches from the stocks for a space of 6 or 

 8 inches above the ground. This work should not be 

 done much in advance of the man who is setting 

 the buds as it will cause the bark to "set." The 

 budder carries his budding sticks over his back in a 

 moistened sack, which serves the double purpose 

 of keeping the scions moist and cooling his back 

 against the blazing heat of the August sun. It 

 really becomes something of a chore to creep along 

 the ground for 10 hours a day during August with 

 one's back turned directly toward the sunlight. 

 Each budding stick is a shoot of the current year's 



