124 



THE GARDENER. 



[jULY. 



the "first be horizontal, and let the next be longitudinal, 

 oeginning at the middle of the first cut and coming 

 downward. Let them, in short, describe the two 

 principal bars of the Eoman letter T. You have now 

 to take out fi'om the bark on which your bud is the 

 piece of wood on which the bark is, and which has 

 served you up to this time to preserve the bark 

 and bud from drying and shrinking. But this is a 

 nice matter. In doing it you must be careful not to 

 endanger the root as it is called of the bud, because in 

 that is its existence. The bark (if the season be pro- 

 per for budding) will easily detach itself from this 

 piece of wood ; but still it requires very careful hand- 

 ling to get it out without endangering the root of the 

 bud. Hold the bud upon your forefinger and keep 

 your thumb on the wood opposite, then with the fore- 

 finger and thumb of the other hand bend backward 

 and forward the lower end of the shield, and thus coax 

 the wood to disengage itself from the bark, and when 

 you find it decidedly doing so, remove your thumb 

 from it, and the whole piece of wood will come out, 

 leaving you nothing but a piece of bark of about 2| 

 inches long, with a bud and footstalk of a leaf on it. 

 If the root of the bud be carried away wdth the piece 

 of wood you will perceive a small cavity where it 

 ought to be. In this case, throw away the bud and 

 try another. Having succeeded in a second attempt, 

 now open the two sides of the longitudinal bar of the 

 T with the ivory haft of your budding knife, but in 

 doing this raise the bark clearly dowai to the wood, for 

 the inside of the piece of bark belonging to the bud 

 must be placed directly against this. Having opened 

 these sides W'ide enough to receive the longest end of 

 bark, insert it nicely, taking especial care that its in- 

 ner side lie flatly against the w^ood of the stock. 

 Then cut the upper end of the bark ofiT, so that its 

 edge shall meet precisely the edge of the horizontal 



