FLORIDA STATU HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
95 
adapted to small stock where we use the 
shield bud, so I will not stop to describe 
them. 
SHIELD BUDDING. 
Shield budding is a process that allows 
of the rapid working of nursery or other 
small stock, and has in years past been 
the one in almost universal use in Flor¬ 
ida for that class of work. 
A very few are now grafting nursery 
stock to some extent and charging more 
for the trees so worked under the claim 
that they make more rapid growth. 
Much of this budding being done close 
to the ground, it is an excellent plan to 
have a box arranged to serve as a seat 
and a tool-carrier combined. Mine is 
made of three-eighths inch white pine 
except the top, which is seven-eighths 
and covers a little over half of it. It is 
10x14x7 inches with two compartments 
and several sockets for scions, knife, 
pencil, etc., on inside, and for pruning 
saw and record book outside. The 
front end is tapered down to four inches 
high. My kit of tools include scions in 
a damp shot bag, budding knife, hand 
pruning shears, a ball of twine, a roll of 
waxed cloth, a small whetstone, a stiff 
brush, a pruning-saw, pencil and record 
book. I also usually have a small ham¬ 
mer and tin box of slim, wire nails, of 
assorted sizes, from half-inch to inch, to 
use in inarching whenever I see need of 
it. A person can bud with only a knife 
and ball of twine, but I have done a good 
deal of hard, steady work in badly 
cramped positions, and I have learned 
to make it as easy and convenient as pos¬ 
sible. 
It is important that the knife should 
be sharp. If flat on the upper side and 
rounded a little on the under, it works 
all the better. 
Annular or ring budding is seldom 
practical on the citrus, but is found use¬ 
ful in working the pecan and some other 
difficult stocks. 
It is done by simply removing a short 
ring of bark from a sprout and replacing 
it with one of like size having a bud upon 
it, from the scion. This should fit the 
wound nicely and be well wrapped. 
PREPARING THE BUD. 
Take the scion in your left hand, butt 
from you, holding it between forefinger 
and thumb, so that the bud to be cut is 
about over the middle of the palm. 
Holding knife blade at an acute angle 
with the scion, make a drawing cut from 
a little below the bud to about the same 
distance above. So holding and cut¬ 
ting prevents the knife from running 
with the grain of the wood, a smooth 
under-surface to the shield being very 
important. If the wood is full and 
round, an even shield shape with the bud 
near its center is cut. English horticul¬ 
turists and some Americans take the 
wood out of the shield. This is not at 
all necessary. 
A cross-cut is made through the bark 
of the stock and a perpendicular one, 
from the middle of that, running up or 
down as desired, the corners of the bark 
raised and the shield slipped under its 
full length. If the scion is angular or 
flat, the shield is cut with the bud at one 
side and it is slipped under the bark at 
one side of the perpendicular cut only. 
There are many odd notions as to slip¬ 
ping buds up or down from the cross¬ 
cut, taking out the wood, burning the 
bud upside down to make low-topped 
