BUDDING. A method of reproducing plants and for perpetuating varieties by inserting a bud or bud-scion into a stock. There are numerous styles of budding, such as shield budding, square and circular shield budding, flute budding, and ring budding: here, however. only shield bud ding, the method in most common use, will be described. The bud is taken from wood of the present season's growth. Since the work of bud ding is done during the season of active growth, the bud-sticks are usually prepared so that the petiole or stem of each leaf is left attached, to serve as a handle to aid in pushing the bud home when inserting it beneath the bark of the stock. The stock for budding should be at least as thiek as an ordinary lead pencil. With the apple and pear a second season's growth will be necessary to develop this size, but with the peach a single season will suffice, i.e. peach-stocks can lie budded the same season the pits are planted: conse quently the peach is left until as late in the sea son as is practicable in order to obtain suitable size of stocks.
The height at which buds are inserted varies with the operator. In general, the nearer the ground, the better. The cut for the reception of the bud is made in the shape of a letter T. Usu ally the cross-cut is made at a slight angle with the body of the tree, instead of at right angles to it, and the stem to the T starts at the eross-ent and extends toward the root for an inch or more. The flaps of bark caused by the intersection of the two cuts are slightly loosened with the ivory heel of the budding-knife. and the bud, grasped by the leaf-stem as a handle, is placed under the flaps and firmly pushed in place, until its cut surface is entirely in contact with the peeled body of the stock. A ligature is then tightly drawn about. above. and below the bud, to hold it in place until a union shall be formed. Bands of raffia 10 or 12 inches long make a most con venient tying material. As soon as the buds have united with the stock (`taken'), the ligature should lie cut, in order to prevent girdling the stock and bud. This done, the operation is com
plete until the following spring, when all the trees in which the buds have 'taken' should have the tap cut oil' just above the bud. This forces the entire strength of the root into the bud, and since the root itself had not been disturbed by transplanting, a more vigorous growth usually results from the bud than from scions in whip or crown grafting.
Budding is one of the most economical forms of artificial reproduction. and each year witnesses its more general use. Some nurserymen have gone so far as to use it as a substitute for all other modes of grafting, save whip grafting, in the propagation of the dwarf pear. Budding is eco nomical in the amount of wood used from which to take buds or scions. since a single bud does the work of the three or more upon the scion of the cleft or whip graft. But it is expensive in the use of stoeks, a seedling being required for each tree, while with the piece-root system of grafting two, three, or more stocks can be made from a single seedling.
The one objeetion to budding is that it causes an unsightly crook in the body of the tree, unless the tree is planted deeply enough in the orchard to cover the deformity. In rigorous climates, where trees upon tender roots are likely to suffer from severe winters, a bud of a hardy sort 'upon a tender root is no hardier than the root, because budding leaves a portion of the stock exposed above the surface of the soil, and thus precludes the possibility of the development of roots from the portion above the bud; while a piece-root grafted tree with a long scion is practically the same as a tree propagated from a cutting, as the scion will Strike root and the new plant will be upon its own root. In regions where severe winters do not enter as a factor, there are un doubtedly a number of reasons why budding will be the most desirable method of reproducing hor ticultural varieties. See Ben, and URAFTING.