Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1882-09-08

DIR. T. II. Hoskins, one of the best author
tiles ia the state on fruit culture, makes the
following reply to questions in O late number
of The PHGNIx:
Budding apple trees is q more simple process than
grating. 1t can be performed in less time, and al
season OF the year when other work is less urgent
is recommended in the fruit books in preference
grating Why is it not more practiced In what
month can apple trees be most successfully budded
Vermont? Questions for the agricultural editor the
Watchman.-BrdttlebOrO PhgniS.
We are quite willing to reply to these ques-
tons as well as we can. In the first place
there is doubt whether budding is moro east
ly and successfully done by ordinary opera
tors than grating. To practiced horticultu-
rists both are equally easy, but rough hand
fails oftener with buds than with CRAFTS ac-
cording to our observation. There are rea-
sons for this. In the first place, grating is
done while the trees are dormant, but budding
must be performed while they are growing.
Some skill is required to know when the buds
are just right, and more to know when the
stocks are just right. The mere mechanical
job of putting in bud is trihing, yet not
few are too clumsy to acquire the art and in
the after-treatment of the bud there is some
difficulty. Both the tying in of the bud and
the subsequent loosening of the tie require
attention and judgment. When tree is
grated and waxed the job is complete: but
the bud must be closely bound, and then care
fully watched and the tie loosened at the right
time or the bud will DO "'strangled."
To the question why budding is not more
practiced, we would say that it is practiced
with small woody plants such as roses, which
are always budded The limbs of shrubs, be-
ing always small, admit of buds being insert
ed low down. Budding is widely practced in
the nursery, because there the stocks, wheth-
er peaches, plums, pears or apples, are small,
and the bud may be put in low down. Bud
ding is also advantageously used in changing
the tops of quite young fruit trees that have
the branches still small near the trunk and
thus are capable of being worked in that way.
But if We wish to change the top of larger
tree by budding as the buds must be put in
where the bark is thin, we are compelled to
go out towards the ends of the branches, which
makes great deal more work than grating
and gives us our new wood too far from the
trunk of the tree, leaving long bare limbs be-
tween the trunk and the fruit that will grow
upon the budded parts.
As to the proper season for budding in New
England, nursery man would say-''any
| time you can get good buds and the bark will
run on the stocks" Usually the buds of APP
pie trees are in good order for budding by the
middle of August, and if the stocks have kept
on growing they are also ready to bud. But
| if drought has checked the growth the bark
will not "run"-that is, it cannot be easily
raised up from the wood, so as to allow the
| bud to be slipped in. We lost the sale of 10. .
600 buds to a New York nurseryman few
years ago, he writing, Just as we were ready
to ship them, that his stocks would not run
on account of dry weather. Taking all these
points into consideration, it is easy to see why
grating is preferred to budding upon orchard
trees. We prefer it even in the nursery for
cold regions, as the point of union is placed
under ground, while the bud must be put in
above ground, and when the top of the stock
is removed wound is left which, If not heal
cd over the first season (and it seldom isl,
makes bad place in the tree.