Cut scions of the kind of fruit tree you desire from a one-year-old twig of the same variety. Wrap them in a clean, moist cloth until you are ready to use them. Just before using cut the bud from the scion, as shown in Fig. 69. This bud is now ready to be inserted on the north side of the stock, just two or three inches above the ground. The north side is selected to avoid the sun. Now, as shown at a in Fig. 70, make a cross and an up-and-down incision, or cut, on the stock; pull the bark back carefully, as shown in B; insert the bud C, as shown in D; then fold the bark back and wrap with yarn or raffia, as shown in E. As soon as the bud and branches have united, remove the wrapping to prevent its cutting the bark and cut the tree back close to the bud, as in Fig. 71, so as to force nourishment into the inserted bud.
Budding is done in the field without disturbing the tree as it stands in the ground. The best time to do budding is during the summer or fall months, when the bark is loose enough to allow the buds to be easily inserted.
Trees may be budded or grafted on one another only when they are nearly related. Thus the apple, crab-apple, hawthorn, and quince are all related closely enough to graft or bud on one another; the pear grows on some hawthorns, but not well on an apple; some chestnuts will unite with some kinds of oaks.
By using any of these methods you can succeed in getting with certainty the kind of tree that you desire.
BOTH BUSY STORING APPLES
SECTION XXIV. PLANTING AND PRUNING
Fig. 73.
Present shape comes
from pruning