34 $ 
tive .only when one has taken care in grafting them, to take 
the grafts from a tree in its bearing year. He adds, that this 
has not been attended to, and the graft being taken from it in 
its barren year, the tree will produce plenty of blossom, but 
never any fruit. 
Fruitfulness, being then in all cases, the happy result of a 
concurrence of circumstances on which it is impossible to cal¬ 
culate, it would follow after this principle, that to make sure 
of success the apple tree should be always budded, for its 
crop is seldom decided before the middle of July ; but bud¬ 
ding is seldom practised upon it, as jt is generally considered, 
as by no means the best plan. 
According tome, it is a much more essential point, that the 
grafts should be taken from the lower branches, and the south¬ 
erly aspecf of a tree which is sound and fruitful and of middle 
age. The best grafts are well grown shoots of the preceding 
year, not very long, and with the buds lying close to each 
other. The buds from the fourth to the eighth, are for the 
most part the finest. Two of them are sufficient; a greater 
number requires too much nourishment frpm the stock, and 
might occasion a failure in the prpcess. 
One should not graft a whole nursery indifferently; as the 
individuals, though they are of the same species, put forth 
their shoots at different times ; one must take care to join to¬ 
gether those varieties which are analogous to each other. 
Never did the graft of an early sort, strictly speaking, thrive 
on a late stock, nor a late graft on an early stock. The plants 
may be classified in the preceding spring, that one inay be the 
better able to unite them afterwards in a manner conformable 
io their nature. 
'Care must be taken in budding not to use blossoms, for al¬ 
though they would blow in the spring, they would commonly 
die immediately after. The safest method" that I know of to 
take up the bud, is by means of a goose quill, which has been 
shaped like a pen, whose nib is not quite sharp nor split; this 
instrument being inserted between the wood and the inney 
bark, and pushed from the top downwards, separates them 
from each other without injuring the bud. 
Miller recommends to transplant the trees which had been 
budded the preceeding year, about the end of winter, before 
they be<nn to shoot. An ingenious friend* of mine has carried 
this notfon yet farther with respect to the quince. He b\ids it 
first on the branches, then he cuts tjiem the following spring, 
and plants them as cuttings. 
For my part, I prefer stocks of this kind which have beert 
planted at least two years where they are to remain, for the 
reasons which are specified in the IXth Chapter. With a 
view to quicken their growth, I grafted cuttings some years 
ago, before placing them in the nursery. The greatest part 
of 
t 
* Major Le Hardy. 
