PROPAGATION BY BUDDING AND GRAFTING 133 



and slips easily, and some remarkable records are made by 

 skillful workmen. 



Budding is sometimes employed the same as top-grafting 

 for changing over the top of an old tree from one variety to 

 another. The buds cannot be easily inserted in very old and 

 stiff bark, but in all smooth and fresh bark they work readily, 

 even if the limb 

 is three or four 

 years old; but the 

 younger the limb, 

 the greater the pro- 

 portion of buds that 

 may be expected to 

 live. Sometimes 

 old trees are se- , 



verely pruned or 

 stubbed the year 

 before the budding 

 is to be undertaken, 

 to obtain young 

 shoots in which to 

 set the buds. The ^ 



stubbing or head- 

 ing-back of a citrus 

 tree to get new FIG. 145. 

 shoots for budding 

 is indicated in Fig. 145 (adapted from a publication by R. A. 

 Davis of the Department of Agriculture of the Union of South 

 Africa). In fruit-trees six or seven years old or less, budding is 

 fully as advantageous as grafting. New varieties are also 

 budded into old branches to hasten bearing of the bud, for the 

 purpose of testing the variety. Here budding has a distinct 

 advantage over grafting, as it uses fewer buds, for the wood 

 of new sorts is often scarce. 



Tree headed back preparatory to top- 

 budding. 



