188 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Mar., 1898. . 
often crown grafted over with one of the best selected varieties. Mangoes may 
also be planted in beds or rows and transplanted when required, the best time 
to do so being during the rainy season. 
Nuts of all kinds require to be kept in sand from the time they are 
gathered from the tree, as they rapidly lose their vitality if exposed to the air; 
and, if possible, they should be planted where they are to remain permanently. 
This does not apply to almonds, which can be treated in a similar manner to 
peaches, but to walnuts, pecans, &ec. These nuts can, however, be planted in 
nursery rows and transplanted during the winter if desired, but they make a 
better growth and produce the most vigorous trees if planted where they are 
to remain permanently. 
When apples and pears are raised from seed, the seed should be sown in 
a specially prepared seed bed, and the young plants should be set out ina 
nursery row, in a similar manner to young citrus seedlings, when large enough 
to transplant. ; 
The most important consideration in the propagation of seedlings is to 
sow nothing but the most carefully selected seeds, no matter what the fruit 
may be, and the next is to take proper care of the young seedlings. All badly 
grown or weakly seedlings should be destroyed, as such will never make good 
stocks or trees. When seedlings show especial merit, it is advisable to test 
their fruiting qualities, as you may obtain some exceedingly choice new 
varieties by this method; and if the fruit does not turn out to be of especial 
merit, then the tree can always be worked over with a first-class variety, so 
' that there is little or no loss to the grower. 
BUDDING. 
This consists in taking a fully developed bud of any variety of fruit that 
it is desired to propagate and inserting it under the bark of the tree that is to 
be converted into ‘this variety. Budding can only be accomplished when the 
tree to be worked over (the stock) is in vigorous growth, and there is a good 
flow of sap, so that the bark will run freely. The bud must be fully developed, 
as if immature, though it will often make a union with the stock, it will not 
grow. Budding is by no means a difficult operation, and no fruitgrower should 
have any difficulty in performing it if he will carefully follow out the following 
instructions and study the illustrations herewith, which are reproductions of 
hotographs showing the exact method in which the work is done. Stone 
fruits—such as the peach, nectarine, apricot, or plum, or almonds—are very 
easy to bud, the operation being as follows :— 
Fig. 1 (Plate IT.) shows a branch of a peach tree of the season’s growth. The 
buds at the top end are not sufficiently mature, and the buds at the base are more 
or less blind, and therefore uncertain, but the whole of the buds in the centre are 
fit for working. This is termed a bud stick, and Fig. 1 further shows this bud 
stick denuded of its leaves and ready for working. In the case of the fruits 
just mentioned there are frequently three buds together, one central bud some- 
what pointed and two roundish side buds. The central bud is a wood bud, and 
the two side buds are fruit buds. Good single buds, plump and full, are always 
to be preferred, but when not obtainable triple buds can be used, and there is 
no need to remove the side fruit buds, as these soon die and leave the wood bud 
to develop and grow. 
Fig. 2 (Plate IIT.) shows the method of holding the bud stick and of cutting 
the bud in the case of stone and pip fruits, but for citrus fruits the cut should be 
made from the base and not the top of the bud. The budding-knife (Hig. 7) 
