iving it a twitch the bud will readily leave the wood. I will say,
however, that most nurserymen insist on budding with the wood, which it
is claimed is the surest and best way to bud. We have tried both ways
for years, and have been able to discover no difference, excepting where
the buds are quite green at the time of budding, when it is best to have
a little wood with the bud to sustain it. Plums should invariably be
budded with the wood out.

After the bud has been properly set, it should be firmly tied with a
broad string, making the laps close enough to entirely cover the slip,
leaving the eye of the bud uncovered. Various kinds of strings for tying
buds are used by nurserymen, but the basswood bark, which is made into
broad, ribbon-like strips, seems peculiarly adapted for the purpose, and
we advise its use where one has any considerable amount of budding to
do. It usually takes from three to four weeks for a bud to callous and
form a union with the stock; at the expiration of this time the strings
should be taken off; we would except only those cases where the stock is
growing, when if the strings pinch the stock too closely, they can be
removed some time sooner.

The stock or stocks can now be left until the following spring, when the
top should be cut away to within an inch or less of the bud; this will
assist the roots to throw all their energy into the bud.

TOP-BUDDING TREES.

The top-budding of fruit and ornamental trees is much practised
now-a-days by orchardists and fruit-growers generally, and sometimes
with marked success.

A famous horticulturist of Geneva, N. Y., some years ago planted a large
number of Lombard plum trees, which he fondly expected to see come into
bearing while quite young, and be early compensated for his labor and
expense in planting them. He waited a number of years without seeing his
hopes realized; his patience at last became exhausted, and starting, lie
top-budded them all with the Bradshaw plum, which grew rapidly, and bore
abundantly in a couple of years, and last season he received eight
dollars per bushel for the fruit in the Philadelphia market. It is a
well known fact among fruit-growers that some rank-growing varieties of
fruit trees, as for instance the Keiffer Hybrid Pear, do not produce
fruit so early, or in such abundance as some less thrifty-growing
varieties, such as the _Beurre Clairgeau_, but by top-budding the
latter-named sort on to a thrifty specimen of