Budding is the best and most simple method of propagating such fruits as peaches, nectarines and apricots, indeed, all the stone fruits as well as very many flowering shrubs. The easiest and the one most usually followed is called shield budding, and it consists in making a cut in the bark of the plant or tree to be operated on in the form of a T, with the leg of it a little longer than usual. Make the cut in to the wood, and then with the point of the knife (a budding knife is the correct tool to work with, and be sure to choose some tree of good size and easy bark for a first attempt) raise the bark all round the cut, beginning first where they cross at the leg. If the tree or plant is fit to be budded, or a good one to do, there will be no difficulty in raising the bark, it separating easily from the wood. The right place in the tree to choose is where there is a clear space just above or below a branch, and where no knot or twigs will be in the way.
Having raised the bark all round, cut the shield or slip to be budded on from any tree of suitable kind. Slip off the bud with a sharp knife, leaving a piece of bark adhering to it. Slip it as you would cut a chip or shaving from a piece of wood, but be sure that you get the bud whole and without damage. Sometimes there will be a leaf underneath the bud, but that can be cut away, and also remove with the point of the knife any particle of wood that may have come too—all you want is the tiny slip of bark with the bud on it. Then slip it into the cut made previously, and bring the shoulders together at the top and tie the two closely with a strip of worsted or wool in such a way that all air will be kept out as well as rain. In tying, it is as well to start below the long cut, and wind the worsted round and round up to the bud and then on above it, as by this means it is brought more closely to the wood, the idea being to place the inside of the young bud close against the sap wood of the tree. By this means the bud is, as it were, planted in the bark of the tree.
The worsted must not be bound exactly over the bud, or it might bruise or break it. The bud should have the appearance of peeping out between the turns of worsted. When the operation is finished it can be left a week or two, and by that time you will know whether it has taken or not by the appearance of the bud. As soon as you are sure that it has taken, the ties or worsted can be loosened, not taken off; they may want relaxing several times as the little bud swells and grows.
Grafting is merely another way of budding, and just as fascinating to the amateur gardener. The best, or rather the only time to either graft or bud is just before the sap begins to move, when the buds swell and look ready to burst. It is at this season that the trees grow most, make most wood, and therefore almost
