i ;8 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
WINTER BUDDING . 
Described by H. M. Strlngfeiiow Who Adds an Adaptation for Nur. 
serymen— Suggestions for Northern as Well as Southern 
Nurserymen—Successful Results of Fall Budding—The 
Preparation and Use of Waxed Cloth—Copperas 
for “Chlorosis 
Editor National Nurseryman : 
As you did me the honor recently to quote my remark that 
“of all men I was the nurseryman’s best friend,” I will try still 
further to prove the fact. I published in my book some years 
ago a full description of winter budding and for the informa¬ 
tion of some of your readers, who may not be familiar with it, 
I will repeat it now, and also give an adaptation of the 
method which will be of great value to nurserymen. 
The original object of winter budding was to quickly 
change an orchard of bearing trees of no value into more 
desirable kinds. It is done thus. Cut away in winter all the 
limbs to within three or four feet of the ground and select 
three or more to be budded, cutting off the others. Insert 
the knife under the bark of the limb, just as if a bud was to 
be cut, and draw it downwards about an inch, pressing the cut 
bark back a little to keep it open. Next cut the bud from the 
scion, just as for ordinary budding, and lay it on the cut sur¬ 
face, after which press the flap back and tie firmly, the bud 
being thus completely covered. The leaf stalk should be cut 
away close to the bud to allow the flap to lie close. 
We can do this any time in Texas during the winter, but 
where the cold is greater it will be safer to perform the opera¬ 
tion when the sap begins to move in spring and buds to swell, 
and it can be continued until the buds are half grown. Of 
course, the buds must be kept dormant in cold storage. In 
budding thus on large limbs, it is safer to take the following 
precaution, which will make success certain: After inserting 
the bud and pressing the flap down, lay a piece of waxed cloth, 
about one inch square, over the flap, and then tie firmly. 
The air will thus be entirely excluded as well as the rain, and 
failure very rare. I learned this in budding orange trees 
during very hot weather, after repeated failures with the com¬ 
mon way, and the same method can be applied with great suc¬ 
cess in budding all deciduous trees when conditions are 
unfavorable. In fact, it was so satisfactory that after trying it 
I used the cloth always ; while a little slow, still with a boy to 
tie, 500 buds can easily be put in per day. 
But while winter budding is very useful at the beginning of 
the season for purposes named above, it is equally so later 
on in summer and full, when the bark has ceased to slip. 
This I did not know until last fall, and it is the point that will 
be particularly useful to the nurserymen, who often loose 
much of their summer budding or are unable in the rush of 
work, to bud all their stock before the bark ceases to slip. I 
found it out thus. A nurseryman in California who had read 
of winter budding, wrote to ask me whether it would succeed 
also in the fall. He remarked that a large part of his summer 
budding had failed, and that if I thought there was any chance 
of success he would try it. While never having done so myself, 
I saw no reason why it should fail. I advised him by all 
means to try it. He did so with a large number of apricot 
trees and had perfect success, using the waxed cloth as 
advised above. 
In order to test the matter I then put in some buds about 
the first of October and kept it up until now, February 8th, 
and nearly all have taken. I find, however, that the cloth and 
string must remain on longer than in summer budding, a full 
month being necessary in cool weather, and I really believe it 
would be best not to take them off until the buds begin to 
swell in spring. 
I will now give directions for preparing the cloth. Take a 
yard or two of common calico, or white cotton cloth, and tear 
into strips about one inch wide. Wrap these, one at a time, 
around a small tin can, a mustard or yeast powder box is 
about the best size, lapping the end of the second strip a little 
under the first, and so on, and winding gradually from one 
end of the can to the other, until evenly covered with the 
cloth about an inch or more thick. Stick a pin in the end of 
the last strip to keep it from unwinding. Next place about a 
pound of beeswax (no tallow or rosin) into a vessel and melt 
entirely over a fire; after which drop the can of cloth into it 
and roll around for several minutes until well soaked, when 
it can be taken out to cool. Take out the pin, unwind and 
cut into about inch pieces and it is ready for use. In hot 
weather the budder sticks the cloth on, where it will remain 
until the tyer comes along, thus keeping out the hot air. In 
cool weather, however, it will not adhere, and the tyer must put 
it on before tying. Not one bud in a hundred thus put in 
will fail, even under the most unfavorable circumstances in 
summer, and 6-year-old peach trees budded this way last 
March here, now have large new heads and will have a good 
crop the coming season. 
Now for another point that will benefit particularly the 
greenhouse man. We are much troubled in this limestone 
country with “chlorosis,” or a yellowing of the leaves, paiticu- 
larly the peach and grape. Knowing that the iron hills of East 
Texas we entirely free from this, it occurred to me to apply 
about a pound of well pulverized sulphate of iron, common 
copperas, around several young grape vines and peach trees 
thus affected. To my surprise and pleasure, a good rain hav¬ 
ing fallen, in less than a week the terminal buds and leaves 
turned a dark green, and in a short time the whole plant was 
of a natural color. The curious thing of it was, that instead 
of the lower leaves changing first, as we would expect, thev 
were the last to be affected, the green gradually extending 
from the bud downwards. Having a lady friend who has a 
large greenhouse, and quite a number of pot plants yellow, I 
advised her to sprinkle a teaspoonful of pulverized copperas 
on the surface and water it in. She did so with the same 
result that I had; all turned green and began to grow vigorously. 
Iron is evidently a tonic for plants as well as folks, and, no 
doubt, all plants, especially in pots, would be benefitted by 
moderate solutions. I believe that if several bushels of ashes 
t 
and about ten pounds of copperas were top-dressed around a 
peach tree with the yellows, it would very probably cure it. 
I hope some of your readers will try it. By the barrel cop¬ 
peras is very cheap, about 2)4 cents per pound. 
H. M Stringfellow. 
Lampasas, Texas, February 12, 1901. 
Blair & Kaufman, proprietors of the Kansas City Nurseries, say : 
“We have been using catalpa for headboards in our nursery for a num¬ 
ber of years, and they seem to last better than any kind of wood we 
can get. They are generally made from trees running from two to five 
inches thick.” 
