PROPAGATION BY BUDDING. 



345 



tion removed, so that, when placed on the stock, 

 it may fit closely ; and if too small, it is in like 

 manner slit up longitudinally, to admit of its 

 being put round the stock, and, if properly per- 

 formed, a piece may be added to make good the 

 deficiency. It is then tied on, and the slit cov- 

 ered with clay or grafting-wax, to exclude the 

 air till adhesion takes place. The operation is 

 generally performed in spring, and considered 

 by the Continental cultivators of advantage in 

 the case of plants difficult to bud by other 

 means. In the south of France, terminal flute- 

 budding is chiefly had recourse to in the case of 

 figs, mulberries, walnuts, chestnuts, &c. 



Terminal flute or tube budding, fig. 120.— Of 

 this there are several modifications. It is em- 

 ployed in cases of trees that are 



Fig. 120. thought not to take readily by 



fjO other means, such as the white 

 I 1 1 mulberry, the walnut, &c. The 

 |J operation is usually performed 



iLj'L in spring, but may also be done 

 m^M i Q autumn. In the former case, 

 MjifS the scions are taken off in autumn, 

 m{m au d stuck in the ground in a cool 

 mm m shady place till spring. The scion 

 JR'/I and stock should be as nearly of 

 111 if the same size as possible, at 

 HI I least the stock should not ex- 

 it 'J^, ceed in diameter the scion, as 

 BflHF ^ * s desirable that the ring of 

 \wT bark taken off the latter should 

 ■§! ff completely surround the former. 

 f|- ' if When, however, the ring of bark 

 Hp m is larger than the stock to be 

 wj&m covered, a small portion of it 

 Wmm may be cut out, so as to make 

 If™ the joining of its edges as com- 

 ll^JI plete as possible ; for it is im- 

 terminal portant that they do join.^ 

 flute-budding. Budding with the pushing eye 

 offers very considerable advan- 

 tages in the process of rapid propagation. M. 

 Carriere, in " Kevue Horticole," October 1852, 

 throws the following light upon this interest- 

 ing subject. " Let us only see," he says, 

 " how a rose-grower proceeds when he wishes 

 to propagate speedily some new or choice va- 

 riety. He encourages, by every means in his 

 power, the perfect development of the first 

 young shoots the plant pushes out; and in this he 

 succeeds in obtaining in June, and even some- 

 times in May, eyes with which he can bud fresh 

 stocks — these eyes, of course, being ready to 

 push into shoots. The plants so budded will 

 supply him, towards the end of summer, with 

 other young shoots furnished with dormant 

 eyes, such as will only push next spring, and 

 with these he can bud more stocks, and obtain 

 plants that will flower in the following season ; 

 and by this course, in the space of a year he 

 finds himself in possession of a considerable 

 stock of a variety of which he had only a single 

 plant at the outset." By the same process, M. 

 Carriere observes, other plants can be as speedily 

 propagated, and instances a new variety of lilac, 

 which he had received on the 24th of May, on 

 which day he took off a small shoot from which 

 five buds were wrought. Four of them took, 



and one of them is now (October) 28 inches long, 

 affording 22 eyes fit for budding, which, if bud- 

 ded now, would produce next spring a score of 

 plants, the produce of one of the buds wrought 

 last May. " Admitting," he continues, " that 

 the success was not always so great, and that 

 each of the four first buds produced shoots 

 having only 16 eyes, still I should next spring 

 find myself in possession of 64 plants." 



Of all the varieties of budding, that termed 

 shield-budding, fig. 115, is the most useful, and, 

 therefore, the mode followed most generally in 

 our nurseries. It is now considered pretty gene- 

 rally, amongst practical propagators, to be the 

 most judicious way of multiplying most of the 

 varieties of fruit and ornamental trees and 

 shrubs, and to a very considerable extent has 

 superseded propagation by grafting. The season 

 for performing the operation, as has already 

 been remarked, extends over a considerable 

 period, depending much on the kind of tree and 

 condition of the wood ; and the only rule that 

 can be laid down in this case is, that the buds 

 should appear plump, fully and perfectly formed 

 in the axles of the leaves, and the bark rising 

 freely in the shoot into which the bud is to be 

 inserted. This state depends upon the free 

 ascent of the sap ; and hence, as has been sug- 

 gested by Mr Saul, mild and warm weather is to 

 be preferred to a dull and cloudy state of the 

 sky for performing the operation. Hardy ever- 

 greens take freely if budded in June, selecting 

 buds from shoots of the preceding year's growth, 

 and inserting them in the stock without remov- 

 ing the wood, as is usually practised with deci- 

 duous trees. Towards the end of June and be- 

 ginning of July, the most forward in growth of 

 deciduous ornamental trees and shrubs should 

 be proceeded with, taking the buds from the 

 most advanced shoots of the present year's 

 growth. From the beginning of July to the 

 middle of August, stone-fruits and pears, with 

 the exception of the peach and apricot, may be 

 successfully wrought ; and during the latter end 

 of August and beginning of September, peaches, 

 apricots, and apples will be in a fit condition 

 for budding. 



Many other modes of budding might be de- 

 scribed — the above maybe taken as the principal. 



The part of the stock into which the bud is 

 to be inserted demands consideration. In a 

 leading article in " The Gardeners' Chronicle," 

 1842, this matter is very clearly explained. 

 " When first inserted, the bud is mainly nour- 

 ished by matter sent down from the leaves of 

 the stock ; it should therefore be introduced 

 near the lower end of a shoot, and not near the 

 point. The number of buds to be put into the 

 same branch is no further material, than that 

 many incisions in the same branch will have the 

 effect of impairing its general health. As 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 acti- 

 vity; it is not, therefore, the most open and 

 smooth part of the stock that is to be selected 

 (although we see this daily done) when a choice 

 can be made. For the same reason, it might 

 appear injudicious to shorten the branch into 



