20 



ORIGINATING OF VARIETIES. 



layers, and cuttings, is performed for the purpose of increasing the 

 number of trees or plants of any variety ; and is performed on stocks 

 of the same, or c'^osely allied, species. These are designated under 

 each particular head of Apples, Pears, &c., on other pages. The 

 process is also one, which, although well and truly described, in all 

 fruit works, and most of the leading journals, is nevertheless so often 

 attended with failure, that while we here repeat descriptions, we, at 

 same time, advise every new beginner to visit the leading nursery- 

 man, or successful amateur grower, in his immediate neighborhood, 

 and learn more in half a day from practical example, than could be 

 told him were one to write a month. In order to be successful, it is 

 requisite that the stock on which it is intended to operate should be 

 in a thrifty, healthy state, not too early or late in the season, but the 

 best time is just when the terminal bud is forming, in August or 

 September. Various modes of budding are known and described; 

 but that most successful, most rapid, and in common use, is the one 

 termed incorrectly, American shield budding, described by Forsyth in 

 1802 — which differs from the common shield budding, only in leaving 

 a small piece of wood at base of the bud inserted, instead of taking 

 all out. An incision is made lensTthwise throu2;h the bark of the 

 stock, and a small cut at right angles at the top, the whole somewhat 



resembling the letter T (fig. 3). A bud 

 is then taken from a shoot of the present 

 year's growth, by shaving off the bark an 

 inch or an inch and a half in length, 

 with a small part of the wood directly 

 beneath the bud (fig. 4). The edges of 

 the bark, at the incision in the stock, are 

 then raised a little (fig. 5), and the bud 

 pushed downward under the bark (fig. 6). 

 A bandage of bass-bark, woollen-yarn, 

 or other substance, is then wrapped around, commencing at the bot- 

 tom and passing the bud, returning again and tying just below, cover- 

 ing all but the bud (fig. 7). The pressure should be just sufficient to 

 keep the inserted portion closely to the stock, but not such as to 

 bruise or crush the bark. In about ten days, or two weeks, after in- 

 sertion, the strings will require to be loosened, and at expiration of 

 three weeks removed altogether. The ensuing Spring, as soon as 

 the buds begin to swell strongly, cut off the stock about six inches 

 above the bud ; and as the shoot, or bud, grows, tie it to the piece of 

 stock above its insertion until about midsummer, when it will be time 

 to cut away the piece of stock above the bud, leaving a sloping cut 

 downward from the top of insertion of bud. An improper practice 

 with some is, to place the buds in water ; this so saturates them with 

 moisture, that they have no attractive force left to imbibe the sap of 

 of the stock, and hence often fail to grow. In cutting the shoot 



Fig.S.Fi 



