22 
PROPAGATION. 
Fig. 11. 
their growth, and require to be budded in 
the hottest part of our summer. In the 
old method, the bud having only a shield 
of bark with but a particle of wood in the 
heart of the bud, is much more liable to be 
destroyed by heat, or dryness, than when 
the slice of wood is left behind in the 
American way. Taking out this wood is 
always an operation requiring some dex- 
terity and practice, as few buds grow when 
their eye, or heart wood is damaged. The 
American method, therefore, requires less 
skill, can be done earlier in the season 
with younger wood, is performed in much 
less time, and is uniformly more successful. 
It has been very fairly tested upon hun- 
dreds of thousand fruit trees, in our gar- 
dens, for the last twenty years, and 
although practised English budders coming here, at first 
are greatly prejudiced against it, as being in direct opposition 
to one of the most essential features in the old mode, yet a fair 
trial has never failed to convince them of the superiority of the new. 
After treatment. In two weeks after the operation you will 
be able to see whether the bud has taken, by its plumpness and 
freshness. If it has failed, you may, if the bark still parts 
readily, make another trial ; a clever budder will not lose more 
than 6 or 8 per cent. If it has succeeded, after a fortnight 
more has elapsed, the bandage must be loosened, or if the stock 
has swelled much, it should be removed altogether. When bud- 
ding has been performed very late, we have occasionally found 
it an advantage to leave the bandage on during the winter. 
As soon as the buds commence swelling in the 
ensuing spring, head down the stock, with a sloping 
back cut, within two or three inches of the bud. 
The bud will then start vigorously, and all “rob- 
bers,” as the shoots of the stock near to and below 
the bud are termed, must be taken off from time to 
time. To secure the upright growth of the bud, 
and to prevent its being broken by the winds, it is 
tied when a few inches long to that portion of the 
stock left for the purpose, Fig. 12, a. About mid- 
summer, if the shoot is strong, this support may be 
removed, and the superfluous portion of the stock 
smoothly cut away in the dotted line, b, when it will 
be rapidly covered with young bark. 
We have found a great advantage, when budding 
trees which do not take readily, in adopting Mr. ^ 
Knight’s excellent mode of tying with two distinct Treatment o-'tke 
bandages one covering that part below the bud. growing bud- 
