22 MARKET NURSERY WORK 



AFTER TREATMENT 



If the season is moist and warm, a " growing " season, and the 

 budding has been done in July, the stock naturally goes on growing 

 and swelling, with the result that the binding round the bud 

 becomes so tight as to constitute a very real danger. In this case 

 it must be loosened, not removed, for it is not safe to remove the 

 ties until quite the end of the growing season when the union has 

 become perfect. 



One advantage of July budding, not before noted, lies in the 

 fact that buds may be inspected a few weeks after insertion, and 

 any that have failed may, if the stocks remain fit, be replaced 

 with quite good chances of success. We have availed ourselves of 

 this many times because we have, no less than others, suffered 

 from untoward circumstances. Atmospheric conditions sometimes 

 tell greatly against successful budding ; stocks may have been unfit 

 and perhaps forced, with the usual results, or anything else may 

 have happened ; but certainly a proportion of buds have not 

 " taken," and when we know that such has been the case we take 

 a second shot at them, and by so doing have greatly reduced the 

 proportion of " misses." Even up till the middle of September 

 we have successfully accomplished this. 



The general untying of buds at the end of the season, being 

 purely mechanical, is boys' work, and calls for no special comment. 



SPRING WORK 



The next operation consists of heading back the stocks (see Fig. 10), 

 and we have known this to be fraught with considerable danger and 

 to cause the death of many buds which had successfully negotiated 

 the winter. The thing is to do it at the right time. It is impossible 

 to fix a date ; the season itself is the controlling factor. We 

 have known mild, open seasons when early March has not been 

 too soon, and other sharp, frosty seasons when they could not be 

 touched till a month later. Let this guide you : Do not head back 

 your stock to excite premature growth that the frosts and east winds 

 may crumple up ; nor leave them till there is such a full flow of 

 sap that the beheading must inevitably drain the plant of every 



