HORTICULTURE. 



197 



Building. 



74. BuJding, or inoculating, as it is sometimes, 

 though not very correctly called, depends on the same 

 principle as grafting, the only difference between a hud 

 and a graft being. that a bud is a shoot in embryo. On 

 this account, trifled trees usually produce t'ruit two 

 seasons earlier than budded trees: but those kinds of 

 trees that are apt to throw out sum, are not grafted 

 without difficulty, while they are readily propagated by 

 budding ; such are the peach and nectarine, the apricot, 

 the cherry, and the plum ; the cherry, however, being 

 occasionally grafted, ami the plum not unfrequenUy. 

 In the case of both these sorts of fruit trees, there is 

 another reason for preferring budding, that gum is 

 apt to node at the place* necessarily cut in performing 

 the process of grafting. Budding is performed any 

 time from the beginning of July to the middle of Au- 

 gust, at which period the buds for next year are com- 

 pletely formed in the axilla of the leaf of the present 

 year, and they are known to be ready by their easily 

 parting from the wood. The buds preferred are thie 

 shortest observed on the middle of a young shoot, on 

 the outside of a healthy and fruitful tree ; on no ac- 

 cownt should an immature tree, or a bad bearer, be re- 

 sorted to for bud. For gathering the shoots contain- 

 ing the buds, dandy day, or an early or late hour, 

 are chosen, it being thought that shoot* gathered in 

 e persire so much aa to drain the moisture 



full sunshine 



from the buds. The buds sbosrid be used as soon after 



k* t. > 



e wnocv 



afc carefully cut off. The head of the Mock is not re- ' 

 moved till the following March: after this, the bud ' 

 grow* vigorously, and in the course of the summer ^ """V" 

 makes a considerable shoot. Against the next spring, 

 the shoot is headed down, in the manner of young 

 grafted trees. 



Production rf Xetv rariclics of Fruits. 



75. From the well-known facts, that some of the fa- Production 

 vourite cider apples of the 1 7th century have become of Dew * 

 extinct, and that others are fast verging to decay, the Jj"" ' 

 conclusion has been drawn, that our varieties of fruit 

 are but of limited duration. Each variety springs from 

 an individual at first ; and this individual has been ex- 

 tended by means of grafting and budding. l)r Dar- 

 win, indeed, in his I'/ii/loiogia, has contended, that 

 each bud is a separate plant, the viviparous offspring of 

 a bud of the preceding year, and deriving nourishment 

 from the soil by means of a set of lengthened radicle* 

 peculiar to itself. This opinion cannot be supported. 

 Mr Knight's view is more rational, and more consistent 

 with observation. All the extensions by means of 

 grafts and buds, must naturally partake of the qualities 

 of the original; where the original is old, there must 

 l>e inherent in the derivatives, the tendency to decay 

 incident to old age. Some popular writers, such as 

 Southty, have represented thi* doctrine as on a par 

 w ith that of the hamadryads, or as equivalent to saying 

 that a graft could not survive the trunk from which it 



In taking off the bud, the knife is inserted about half 

 an inch above it, and a thin sbee of the hark and wood 

 long with it taken off, bringing out the knife about an 

 inch and a half below the IMS). ( Plat. ( ( ( 1 \. Kig. 

 5. a ) This lower part is afterwards shortened ami 

 ilfilMil ; said the leaf is rut off, the stalk being left 

 abort half an inch long. ( Fig. 5. f>.) Perhaps it i bet- 

 ter to insert the knife three quarters of an inch Mo* 

 the bod, and to cat upwards ; at leat this mode i 

 pmfjued in the Scottish nnrserie*. The |>ortion of 

 wood b then taken oat, by raising it from the bark, and 

 pulling it downward* or onwards, according aa the cot 

 lias been made from above or below. If then traction of 

 the wood occasion bow at the bud, that bad is spoilt, 

 and another must be prepared in iti tead; a* gardeners 

 speak, the roof of the bud has gone with the wood instead 

 of remaining with the bark. It i to be noticed, that the 

 bod, and the portion of bark above and below it, receive 

 MfUhli fan gardeners, simply the name of a **/. 



Oa a smooth p*tt of the bark of the stock, a trans- 

 verse tection is now made, through the hark down to 

 the wood : from this is made a longitudinal cut down- 

 ward, about an inch and a half long, so thtt thi- 

 MM may somewhat resemble a Roman T ; by mean* of 

 the flat ivory baft of the lniHiiig.kn.tr. the Urk is 

 raised a little OB each side of the longitudinal incision, 

 so as to receive the bod. ( Plate ( I \ \ ^ 

 The prepared hod is placed in the tipper pan of the 

 MCJMon so made, and drawn downwards : the upper 

 part I* then cut off transvenrly. and the bod pushed 

 wards till the bark of the bud and of the stock join 

 together. ( Fig. 5. rf.) It is retained in this situation by 

 MM of tying with M rands of moistened baM-matting. 



In almut a month after the operation, the tying M 

 slackened : bods that have tukt* appear swelled, nd 

 the footstalk of the old leaf falls off on being slightly 

 leached. All shoot* that spring below the budded part 



taken : but these authors are more lively than ac- 

 curate ; for such an absurdity wa*> never taught by any 

 horticulturist It may be assumed as a fact, that a 

 rerirfjr or kind of fruit, such as the golden pippin or the 

 ribston, is equivalent only to an imUnJanl. By careful 

 t, the health and life of this individual may 



be prolonged ; and grafts placed on vigorous stock*. 

 nn<4 nursed in favourable situations, may long survive 

 the parent plant, or original nngrafted tree. Still there 

 is a progress to extinction ; and the only renewal of mi 

 individual, the only true reproduction, is by seed. This 

 doctrine seem* to be true, at least, a* to fruit-trees, and 

 more particularly as to varieties of these, produced by 

 cultivation : whether it enn safely be extended to plants 

 in general, may admit of some doubt 



As the production of new rarietie* of fruit from 

 the seed, i a subject which now very much occupies 

 the attention of horticulturist*, it may be proper here to 

 state the precautions adopted by Mr' Knight rnd others 

 in conducting their trials. It is, in the first place, a 

 rale to take the seeds of the finest kind* of fruit, and 

 from the ripest, largest, and best flavoured specimens 

 of that fruit. \Vhrn Mr Knight wished to procure 

 some of the old apples in a healthy and renovated state, 

 he adopted the following method : he prepared stock* 

 of the best kind* of apple that could be propagated by 

 cutting*, and planted them against a south wall in very 

 rich soil ; these were next year grafted with the irr. 

 golden pippen, or some other fine old kind. In the 

 course of the following winter, the young trees were 

 dug up, and the root* being retrenched, they were 

 replanted in the same place. By this mode of treat- 

 ment they were thrown into bearing at two years old. 

 Only one or two apples were allowed to remain on each 

 tree ; these Consequently attained a large si*e, and more 

 perfect maturity. The seeds from these fruits Mr 

 Knight then sowed, in the hopes of procuring seed- 

 lings possessed of good or of promising qualities; and 

 these hopes have not been disappointed. 



