OPERATION OF BUDDING. 123 



It cannot be unworthy of remark, that a pheno- 

 menon so striking as that of the mountain-ash bear- 

 ing, instead of its own little, sour, and unwhole- 

 some berries, large, sweet, and nutricious pears, in 

 consequence of engrafting, has given rise to a Scrip- 

 tural metaphor most expressive of a like change in 

 our moral nature one that is as true in point of 

 fact, as certainly accomplished by appointed means, 

 and as beneficial in its effects, comparing the fruits 

 of the old nature with those of the new. It be- 

 comes not immortal beings to admire the one mys- 

 tery and to overlook the other ; it becomes not me 

 to tell a fellow-creature the remarkable art by which 

 his trees may be fruitful without reminding him 

 that he is himself a tree to be engrafted ; and it 

 becomes neither him nor me to study the fruits that 

 we shall gather without considering the fruits which 

 we bear. May we who are gardeners in the Lord's 

 vineyard be wise in the heavenly art as well as in 

 the earthly, that we may see around us the blos- 

 soms and fruits of the engrafted word, which is 

 able to save the soul ; and may we give ourselves 

 earnestly to the work, lest the Lord of the vineyard 

 cut down our trees, because, having come and 

 sought fruit thereon, he found none. 



The mode of performing the beautiful and inter- 

 esting operation of budding, or inoculating, is as 

 follows: To procure the bud to be inserted, cut 

 off a shoot of one year's growth from an approved 

 tree, and from the side the most exposed to the sun. 

 Slice off a little of the wood an^bark, containing 



