BUDDING. 



51 



Each budder is furnished with two assistants. Intelli- 

 gent lads, of ten or twelve years, make very good assist- 

 ants after a little instruction and experience. One is 

 called a stripper, the other a tyer. The stripper goes he- 

 fore the budder, and strips or rubs off all the leaves and 

 small shoots of the trees for a distance of six inches above 

 the ground. Sometimes, especially late in the season, 

 the shoots have to be cut off with a sharp knife. This 

 clears the way for the budder, and enables him to 

 proceed with ease and dispatch. The budding now com- 

 mences thus: The budder is provided with a very sharp 

 instrument, called a Tmdding-hnife (fig. 4), made espe- 



V i X^~ " ' ^^ JID pose ; with this he 



Fig. 4.— BUDDING-KNIFE. maVcs z, vcrtlcal 



iuicision in the young tree, about an inch and a half long; 

 and a transverse one at right angles with it. It is 

 made with great rapidity, and in this manner: The knife 

 is inserted at the lower end of the slit, drawn up the de- 

 sired length, then, with a slight twist of the hand, right 

 and left, the transverse cut is made, and the edges of the 

 bark at the same time loos- 

 ened so as to readily admit 

 the bud, as in fig. 5. These 

 incisions are clear through 

 the bark, and slightly into 

 the wood. The bud (fig. 6) 

 is now cut from the cion 

 and immediately inserted, 

 as shown in fig. 7. The 

 budder has now done his 

 part, and proceeds to an- 

 other, and so on, with 

 great rapidity. Some ex- 

 pert budders will bud two thousand five hundred trees 

 i» a day ; fifteen hundred, for a skillful band, is not re- 



Fig. 5.— INCISION. Fiir. 6.— BUD. 

 Fig. 7. — BUD INSEUTED. 



