418 



THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



[Juhj. 



fuil-standards, the budding may, however, if necessary, be 

 performed as low in the stock as for dwarfs, and the first shoot 

 from the bud trained up to a proper height for a stem. 



The proper apparatus for budding are, a small knife with a 

 flat thin handle, for preparing the stock and buds for inser- 

 tion, and opening the bark of the stock, to admit them, and a 

 number of new bass strings to tie them, which should be pre- 

 viously well soaked in water to render them more tough. 



As in this operation, the head of the stock is not cut off, as 

 in grafting, but left entire till the ensuing spring, and then 

 cut off, a smooth part on the side of the stock, at the proper 

 height, ratlicr on the northward side, away from the sun, 

 should be chosen for the insertion of the buds. This should be 

 done by making a horizontal cut across the rind of the stock, 

 and from the middle of that a slit downwards about two inches 

 in length, so that it may have the form of the letter T, being 

 careftd net to cut too deep, lest the stock should be vrounded ; 

 then having cut off the leaf from the bud, leaving the foot- 

 stalks remaining, a cross cut should be made about half an 

 inch below the eye, and the bud slit off, with part of the wood 

 to it, somewhat in the form of an escutcheon : after this, that 

 part of the wood which was taken with the bud should be sepa- 

 rated, taking care that the eye of the bud be left ; all those 

 buds which lose their eyes in stripping, are useless ; then gently 

 raise the bark of the stock, where the cross incision was made, 

 with the flat handle of the knife clear to the wood, and thrust 

 the bud into it ; placing it smooth between the rind and the 

 wood of the stock, cutting off any part of the rind of the bud, 

 w hich may be too long for the slit made in the stock ; and 

 having thus Exactly fitted the bud to the stock, tie them closely 

 round with bass mat, beginning at the under part of the slit, 

 and proceed to the top, being careful not to bind round the 

 eye of the bud, which must be left open and free. 



Although it be the ordinary practice to divest the bud of that 

 part of the wood which was taken from the shoot w ith it, yet 

 in many sorts of tender trees, it is better to preserve a little 

 wood to the bud, without which they often miscarry. This 

 has occasioned some to imagine that some sorts of trees are 

 not capable of being propagated by budding. 



