72 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



it does not appear that such varieties owe their peculiarities to any that may 

 have existed in the parent plants. 



The object obtained by budding is an early and rapid multiplicaiion of any par- 

 ticular kind of fruit ; and though it is but too probable thai many of our readers 

 may not have provided themselves with nurseries of stocks to bud upon (as every 

 one should do, considering that they may be raised as easily, though not quite so 

 quickly, as corn or peas), still there are few but who may find about their grounds 

 or orchards subjects on which they may at once bud choice apples, and pears, 

 and peaches, and cherries, from choice kinds within their reach. 



Johnson says that buds of almost every species succeed with most certainty if 

 inserted in shoots of the same year's growth ; but he says the small walnut buds 

 succeed best which are taken from the base of the annual shoots, where these 

 join the year-old wood of that from which the bud is taken. Buds, says he, are 

 usually two years later in producing tVuit than grafts. It is recommended, how- 

 ever, as a general rule, that buds be taken from the middle of the shoot, as those 

 from its point are said to make wood too freely, and those from its base to be 

 more unexcitable, and consequently less prompt to vegetate. So much quicker 

 and more rapid is the process of budding than grafting, that, Mr. Downing says, 

 a skillful budder, with a clever boy following him to tie the buds, is able to work 

 from a thousand to tAvelve hundred nursery stocks in a day ; and he adds, among 

 other reasons for giving preference to budding over grafting all stone fruits espe- 

 cially, such as peaches, apricots, &c., that they require extra skill in grafting, 

 whereas they are budded with great ease. According to the same high author- 

 ity, the several fruit-trees come in season for budding in the following order : — 

 Plums, cherries, apricots on plums, apricots, pears, apples, quinces, nectarines, 

 and peaches. Before commencing, says Mr. Downing, you should provide your- 

 self with a budding-knife, [Fig. 1,] about four and a half inches long, having a 



Fig. 1. 



rounded blade at one end — and an ivory handle, having a thin, rounded edge, 

 called the haft, at the other. But let not any indolent reader excuse himself that 

 there is no exactly such knife within his reach ! True, every farmer of becoming 

 pride will be provided with these small affairs, just as the true disciple of Izaak 

 "Walton will take care, before the season comes on, to have all his fishing tackle 

 m apple-pie order: his bamboo, and, for lighter fishing, his white cane rod ; his 

 lines of silk, of hair, and of silk-worm gut, manufactured from the intestines of 

 that wonderful insect — being, for its circumference, the strongest substance 

 known to the angler. He will have his tip-capped float, and his cork float, and 

 his plugged float ; he will have his winch, his basket, his landing net, his naked 

 hooks, and his flies— his May fly and his ant fly, his dun-red hackle and his can- 

 dle fly. Say, ye spirits of old uncle Izaak, and of Cotton, and — no less known in 

 his day and his sphere — of our old fellow angler. Col. Jack 'J'homas I what will 

 he not have that a genuine angler should, that all may be 0. K. ? Yet we have 

 seen a good mess of fish as ever was made into " Black Dan" chowder, taken at 

 old Rock Hall, with a plain cedar angle and common twisted-cotton line. Why 

 then should not the farmer uf the true grit lake care to have all his tackle, too. 



