OF DWARF FRUIt f REE CULTURE. 5$ 



sloping cut; a similar split is made upwards in the cion, and both 

 are locked in each other, as shown in cut, taking care to have the 

 inner line of bark of each in accurate adjustment at least on one side. 

 The whole length of the joint is bound tightly with waxed string, 

 the cion, with only one sound bud, projecting above the waxed 

 wrapping. In the cleft grafting it is well to put in two cions, one 

 on each side, and after they have fairly started to grow, one shoot 

 can be cut off, leaving only one to obtain all the sap and strengthen 

 its growth. 



The great advantage of grafting as compared with budding con- 

 sists in the fact that if from any cause the graft fails to grow, being 

 done in the early spring, one can bud the same stock in the summer 

 and save the loss of a whole season. The stone fruits are generally 

 better adapted to budding. Both grafting and budding are equally 

 adapted to floral work as to fruits. 



The operation of budding, although for the same purpose as 

 grafting, is distinctly different in the modus operandi. In the first 

 place, it is performed in summer when the sap is in full flow and 

 when the bark will lift freely from the wood, both of the stock and 

 bud stick. The process is simple, however, and is specially useful 

 in training dwarf trees to secure uniformity and a balance of 

 growth. For instance, in training Palmetto forms and other 

 fancy shapes we are often hindered by side shoots not starting 

 where we desire them, insomuch that the nursery man or private 

 cultivator will start to make his tree of a particular form, when the 

 willful little thing takes the notion to follow its own sweet will, 

 regardless of consequences, and it becomes less trouble to give way 

 and let it take its own natural form than to fight it out ; nevertheless 

 by budding we can enforce the growth of a shoot just where we 

 desire it to be. This will be apparent from the cuts. Sometimes in 

 growing cordons the stems fail to furnish sufficiently with fruit 

 spurs and we can then put in one or more buds in any position along 

 its stem. 



Having selected a suitable stock for budding, it is necessary 

 to procure sufficient plump buds; these are generally taken of the 

 new or current season's growth by cutting off a shoot with several 

 buds upon it ; this is called a ' ' bud stick. * ' Of course only one bud 

 is used in a place, but as many may be inserted as we find suitable 

 room for. We now select a smooth spot in the bark of young wood 

 and cut a T down to the cambrium or sap wood, lift the bark on 



