143 



THE ART 0? 



Proper Season for Shield-Budding* 

 Shield-budding is possible whenever the sap of the stock ia 

 flowing, but two distinct periods are most suitable for this opera- 

 tion : 1. In spring, when the sap begins to flow, and when the 

 immediate growth of the graft is desired. This is grafting 

 with a pushing bud. 2. In the course of the summer, and 

 when the graft is not required to sprout until the following 

 spring. This is grafting with a dormant bud. The second method 

 is by far the best, and, moreover, most commonly adopted. 



SJiield-Budding with a Pushing Bud. 

 This mode should be practised at the commencement of the 

 year's growth, so that the graft may develop itself sufficiently and 

 ripen its wood before winter. By this method the cultivator 

 hastens the multiplication of rare kinds of plants. By it he 

 obtains at once suitable specimens for market, and these will 

 also supply him in the course of the summer with scicn- 

 b ranches for the late grafting with dormant buds. The 

 method, however, should not be abused by too late grafting, 

 as the forced growth which results from it may seriously 

 affect the stock which has been thus grafted. The scion- 

 branches are cut from the parent tree some time before the 

 flow of the sap ; they are then buried at the north side of a 

 wall their entire length in a trench, and 3 or 4 inches under the 

 surface. "When the state of the sap in the stock is such as to 

 allow the bark to be easily detached, the scions are taken up, 

 and their buds shield-grafted by the ordinary methods. As 

 the leaves will have fallen cfr. the absence of a footstalk will 

 render the handling of the buds less easy in detaching them. 

 The rose-tree, which is readily grafted in this way, furnishes 

 very early in the season young scion-branches, which should 

 be prepared, stripped of their leaves, and used at once as we 

 have before indicated. Let us again repeat that shield-budding 



