REVERSE BUDDING. 307 



and have now in my possession a plant that was worked on 21st October, 

 ten years ago." 



In the Agricultv/ral Journal of the Pays Bas for October, 

 1824, it is recommended to reverse the usual mode of raising 

 the bark for inserting the buds, and to make the cross cut at 

 the bottom of the slit, instead of at the top, as is generally- 

 done in Britain. The bud is said rarely to fail of success, 

 because it receives abundance of the descending sap, which it 

 cannot receive when it is under the cross cut. This method is 

 said to be practised by the orange-growers of the South of 

 France. 



Since the young bud is to be nourished at first by the 

 leaves above it on the stock, the best place to insert it is close 

 beneath some leaf in full activity ; it is not, therefore, the most 

 open and smooth part of the stock which is to be selected. 

 For the same reason, it might appear injudicious to shorten 

 the branch into which a bud is inserted ; but if the shoot is not 

 stopped, the rising sap will be attracted into the youngest 

 leaves, and expended in their increase, while on the other 

 hand, if the shoot is stopped, the sap will be forced laterally 

 into the buds already forming on its sides, and the new bud 

 will participate in this advantage. It is therefore, upon the 

 whole, advantageous to cut off a part of each shoot into which 

 a bud is introduced ; the removal of a quarter of it is enough 

 to answer the intended purpose. 



As it is important that the vigour of the budded branch 

 should be preserved for the buds which it is forming, all 

 flowers or fruit should be removed both from it and from the 

 twigs in its vicinity, otherwise those parts will consume the 

 organizable matter which would be applied to the service of the 

 new buds. Prickles, however, do no harm, and may possibly 

 be useful, although we do not know what their use is. 



Another point is the propriety of leaving a leaf upon the bud 

 to be inserted. This question is one which practice can answer 

 better than theory. Theory says the leaf will injure the bud 

 by carrying off its fluid particles, and assist it by the secretions 

 it will send down to it, and to the nascent tissue forming 

 beneath it. Now, since the abstraction of fluid is rapid and 



X 2 



