134: THE NURSERY. 



ssasons. In a dry, warm season, the young wood matures 

 earlier, and stocks cease to grow sooner, and are, there- 

 fore, budded earlier than in a cool, moist season, that pro- 

 longs the growth of the stocks, and retards the maturity 

 of the buds. Stocks growing feebly require to be budded 

 earlier than those growing freely. It is necessary to keep 

 an eye to all these points. 



The destruction of insects must be promptly attended 

 to. An army of slugs may devour the foliage of the pear 

 and cherry, and even the plum, in a day or two, and pre- 

 vent their being worked that season. The aphis, too, fre- 

 quently appears in such multitudes as to check the growth. 

 Dry lime or ashes thrown on the slugs will kill them, and 

 strong soap suds, or tobacco water, so strong as to assume 

 the color of strong beer, will kill the aphis. 



2d. Preparation of the /Stocks. This consists in remov- 

 ing such lateral shoots from the stock as may be likely to 

 obstruct the insertion of the bud. Our practice is to do 

 this at the moment of budding, one person doing the 

 work in advance of the budders. If done a few days pre- 

 vious, and several shoots are removed, it checks the 

 growth of the stocks, and they do not work so well. It 

 might answer very well to do it two or three weeks pre- 

 vious, so that they might recover from the check before 

 being budded. 



3d. Insertion of the Bud. Having treated so fully of 

 the manner of preparing and inserting the buds in the 

 article on budding, nothing farther need be said on these 

 points here. 



In free stocks the bud should be inserted within three 

 cr four inches of the ground. 



Jn some parts of the west, Wisconsin, Illinois, and seme 

 other places, certain rapid, late-growing, and rather tender 

 varieties are liable to be winter-killed if budded close to 

 the ground, probably by the sudden thawing of that part 



