160 POPULAR FRUIT GROWING. 



3. The bark must separate easily from the wood on the 

 stocks to be budded. This will take place only when they are 

 growing rapidly. 



4. A sharp, thin knife is absolutely necessary. 



5. The work must be done rapidly, and the buds firmly 

 and evenly tied into place. No wax is needed. 



Necessary implements. A common shoe knife, with the 

 corners rounded off, makes a very cheap, and yet a most excel- 

 lent budding knife. There are many specially designed forms 

 of knives for this purpose and most of them have an ivory point 

 or blade in the base of the handle for lifting the bark, but the 

 rounded corner of the back of the shoe knife is just as good as 

 the best ivory blade for raising the bark. A shoe knife costs not 

 one-fourth as much as an ordinary budding knife and generally 

 holds an edge better. 



Besides a shoe knife, tying material is necessary. For 

 this purpose basswood bark is perhaps the best, since it is but 

 little affected by moisture, and if put on wet, remains tight 

 and close. This tying material is prepared by soaking sections 

 of the bark of the common basswood in water until the inner 

 layers separate easily. The bark peels from the trees readily 

 in June and July, and it requires about three weeks of soaking 

 in stagnant water to get the fiber into the right condition. Aft- 

 er the layers readily separate the bark should be stripped into 

 pieces about one-fourth of an inch wide. If hard and stiff, it 

 may be softened by rubbing and pounding. Cotton warp, corn 

 husks or woolen yarn answer very well, and a tying material 

 called raffia is now used more widely than any other material 

 for budding. This is a long, grass-like material which is used 

 for baskets and is made from the leaves of a palm known as 

 Raphia peduncula. It should be made into thin, very narrow 

 strips before being applied and should be put on dry. 



The process of budding will be found illustrated in figs. 

 79 and 80, showing the successive stages in shield budding, 

 which is the form generally used in this country. When every- 

 thing is ready for the work, prepare a lot of bud-sticks as shown 

 in fig. 79, by cutting off all but about one-half inch of the leaf 



