26 PROPAGATION OF VARIETIES. 



be destroyed by heat, or dryness, than when the slice of wood is left 

 behind in the American way. Taking out this wood is always an 

 operation requiring some dexterity and practice, as few buds grow 

 when their eye or heart-wood is damaged. The American method 

 therefore requires less skill, can be done earlier in the season with 

 younger wood, is performed in much less time, and is uniformly more 

 successful. It has been very fairly tested upon hundreds of thousands 

 of fruit-trees in our gardens for the last twenty years, and although 

 practised English budders coming here at first are greatly prejudiced 

 against it, as being in direct opposition to one of the most essential 

 features in the old mode, yet a fair trial has never failed to convince 

 them of the superiority of the new. 



After-treatment. In two weeks after the operation you will be able 

 to see whether the bud has taken, by its plumpness and freshness. If 

 it has failed, you may, if the bark still parts readily, make another 

 trial ; a clever budder will not lose more than 6 or 8 per cent. If it has 

 succeeded, after a fortnight more has elapsed the bandage must be 

 loosened, or, if the stock has swelled much, it should be removed alto- 

 gether, by cutting on the back side opposite the bud. When budding 

 has been performed very late, we have occasionally found it an advan- 

 tage to leave the bandage on during the winter. 



As soon as the buds commence swelling in the ensu- 

 ing spring, head down the stock, with a sloping back cut, 

 within two or three inches of the bud. The bud will 

 then start vigorously, and all " robbers," as the shoots 

 of the stock near to and below the bud are termed, must 

 be taken off from time to time. To secure the upright 

 growth of the bud, and to prevent its being broken by 

 the winds, it is tied, when a few inches long, to that por- 

 tion of the stock left for the purpose, Fig. 16, a. During 

 the month of August, if the shoot is strong, this support 

 may be removed, and the superfluous portion of the stock 

 smoothly cut away in the dotted line 5, when it will be 

 rapidly covered with young bark. 



We have found a great advantage, when budding trees 

 which do not take readily, in adopting Mr. Knight's ex- 

 cellent mode of tying with two distinct bandages, one 

 covering that part below the bud, and the other the 

 Treatment of the portion above it. Iii this case the lower bandage is 

 removed as soon as the bud has taken, and the upper 

 left for two or three weeks longer. This, by arresting the upward sap, 

 completes the union of the upper portion of bud (which in plums fre- 

 quently dies while the lower part is united) and secures success. 



Reversed shield-budding, which is nothing more than making the 

 cross cut at the bottom instead of the top of the upright incision in 

 the bark, and inserting the bud from below, is a good deal practised 

 in the south of Europe, but we have not found that it possesses any 

 superior merit for fruit-trees. 



An ingenious application of budding, worthy the attention of ama- 

 teur cultivators, consists in using a blossom-bud instead of a wood-bud ; 

 when, if the operation is carefully done, blossoms and fruit will be pro- 

 duced at once. This is most successful with the Pear, though we have 

 often succeeded also with the Peach. Blossom-buds are readily distin- 



