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LIX. Directions for preserving Buds of Fruit Trees in a vege- 

 tating State, when sent to considerable distances. By Thomas 

 Andrew Knight, Esq., F. R. S., $c, President. 



Read April 3d, 1821. 



Some experiments were made two years ago, by Sir 

 Charles Monck and myself, to ascertain the most eligible 

 method of transferring buds from one part of the kingdom 

 to another ; the result of which has had the effect of saving 

 me some trouble, and my friends some expense. It has 

 also led me to adopt a better mode of using buds which have 

 become somewhat withered, than I previously knew : and, 

 therefore, as the following account can occupy but a very 

 small space in the Transactions of the Society, I have thought 

 it worth communicating. 



Several different methods of packing buds were tried ; 

 but the following, which was first adopted by Sir Charles 

 Monck, having proved to be at once the most efficient and 

 most easy of execution, it is useless to describe any other. 



The leaf- stalks of the buds were reduced to a very short 

 length, and the young branch was then enclosed in a double 

 fold of cabbage leaf, bound close together at each end, and 

 enclosed in a letter. It was found advantageous to place 

 the lower surface of the cabbage leaf inwards, by which the 

 enclosed branch was supplied with humidity, that being the 

 perspirating surface of the leaf, and the other surface being 

 nearly, or wholly, impervious to moisture. 



vol. iv. 3 F 



