the peach, apricot, and nectarine as late as the middle of September. Youth may readily acquire the art, by little practice, under the directions we are about to give; and we know a young lady who is an adept in it, and who practises it annually as a pleasant recreation, as well as a useful labour. We have often been treated with delicious peaches produced by the buds which she had inserted.

The first consideration is to provide stalks, if this provision has not already been made. Seeds may be collected the coming season in almost every family. Those of stone fruit may be mixed with earth, or deposited in a hole in the garden, and in the autumn buried superficially in the earth, to expose them to the expanding influence of the frost; and in the spring those of the peach and plum that have not burst the shell should be cracked, and the whole sown in a well-prepared seed-bed. The cherries may be sown immediately after they are taken from the fruit, and the apple, pear, and quince either in autumn or spring. All the kinds will generally grow the first season. If transplanted in June, and well treated, the peach will do to bud in September following, and the others in two and three years, if put into nursery rows three feet apart, and a foot distant in the rows, and well taken care of. The same rule applies to plants as to animals: the better condition they are kept in while young, the more profitable they will become at maturity. Thus two or three roods of ground will suffice a farmer for a nursery of choice fruit, from which he may replenish his orchard and his garden at pleasure, and readily appropriate to his use every new variety which comes under his observation. No one will regret the trifling labour and attention which he has bestowed on a little plantation of this kind, after he has began to realize the fruits of it. Ornamental shrubs and trees, to embellish the

grounds about his buildings, may be added without cost and with trifling labour.

A bud is an organized plant in embryo, with roots, branches, and foliage, and, like a seed, pos sesses individual vitality capable of development and the reproduction of its species. The process of budding is the transferring this embryo plant from its parent tree to another tree, which must at least be of the same genus, if not of the same spe cies. The apricot and nectarine may be, and generally are, budded upon the peach; the plum and the peach are budded on each other, and the pear and apple may be worked on the wild crab and hawthorn; and the former is put on the quince to produce dwarf trees. To render the transfer or budding succesful, three things are requisite; 1. That the bud be in a proper condition to transfer; 2. That the stalk be in condition to receive and nourish it; and, 3. That the transfer be skilfully made. The bud ought to be matured, i. e., of full growth, and yet not so hard and firm as to cause injury in separating it from its parent. The stock must peel freely, as this is necessary for the insertion of the bud, and indicates the presence of what is termed the cambium, which is the soft, partially-formed woody matter which underlays the bark, which will ripen into indurated wood; is the source of nourishment to the bud, and the bond of union between it and the stock. The operator must use precaution that he injures neither the bud, the bark, nor the cambium, as these all exercise important offices in effecting the union; and he must withal take care to apply his ligatures properly. It will be seen, from these remarks, that both the stock and the graft should be in a state of active growth, and the more vigorous the better, when the budding process is performed. It is also preferable to bud when the weather is cloudy, but not wet. Twigs for budding may be preserved for many days with care. They should

be immediately divested of their leaves, but not wholly of their leaf-stocks or petioles, to prevent the exhaustion of moisture, and may then be wrapped in fresh grass, wet cloths, or with their butt ends preserved in moisture.

Fig. 1.

The only implement necessary is a budding-knife (fig. 1), and the only preparation some bass matting, or the inner bark of the basswood or linden.

Professor Thouin enumerates twenty species or varieties of grafting, most of which are only practised by amateurs and professional gardeners. We shall describe only the common mode, which is in general practice in nurseries. We take it from the Encyclopedia of Gardening.

"Shield-budding, or T budding, is thus performed: Fix on a smooth part of the side of the stock, rather from than towards the sun, and of a height depending, as in grafting, on whether dwarf, half, or whole standard trees are desired; then, with the budding-knife, make a horizontal cut across the rind, quite through to the firm wood; from the middle of this transverse cut make a slit downward, perpendicularly, an inch or more long, going also quite through to the wood. This done, proceed with all expedition to take off a bud; holding the cutting or scion in one hand, with the thickest end outward, and, with the knife in the other hand, enter it about half an inch or more below a bud, cutting nearly half way into the wood of the shoot, continuing it with one clear slanting cut about half an inch or more above the bud, so deep as to take a part of the wood along with it, the whole about an inch and a half long (a, fig. 2); then directly with the thumb and finger, or point of the knife, clip off the woody part remaining to the bud; which

done, observe whether the eye or germe of the bud remain perfect; if not, and a little hole appears in that part, it is improper, or, as gardeners express it, the bud has lost its root, and another must be prepared. This done, placing the back part of the bud or shield between your lips, expeditiously with the flat haft of the knife separate the back of the stock on each side of the perpendicular cut clear to the wood (c), for the admission of the bud, which directly slip down, close between the wood and bark, to the bottom of the slit (d). The next operation is to cut off the top part of the shield (b) even with the horizontal first-made cut, in order to let it completely into its place, and to join exactly the upper edge of the shield with the transverse cut, that the descending sap may immediately enter the back of the shield, and protrude granulated matter between it and the wood, so as to effect a living union. The parts are now to be immediately bound round with a ligament of fresh bass (e), previously soaked in water to render it pliable

and tough, beginning a little below the bottom of the perpendicular slit, proceeding upward closely round every part, except just round the eye of the bud, and continue it a little above the horizontal cut, not too tight, but just sufficient to keep the whole close, and exclude the air, sun, and wet.

"Future Treatment.—In a fortnight, at farthest, after budding, such as have adhered may be known by their fresh appearance at the eye; and in three weeks all those which have succeeded well will be

firmly united with the stock, and the parts being somewhat swelled in some species, the bandage must be loosened, and a week or two afterward finally removed. The shield and bud now swell in common with the other parts of the stock, and nothing more requires to be done till spring, when, just before the rising of the sap, they are to be headed down close to the bud, by an oblique cut, terminating about an eighth or quarter of an inch above the shield. In some cases, however, as in grafting, a few inches of the stalk is left for the first season, and the young shoot tied to it for protection from the winds."

Experiment on Feeding Calves.-Long and careful observation has convinced me that cows give more milk through the season to take their calves from them the first or second week. Calves, with kind treatment, will usually, in two or three days, learn so as readily to drink the milk when presented to them, but they require about one fifth more milk when fed to them; probably the saliva they swallow in sponging the milk from the teat may account for the difference, but they learn to feed on grass or fodder younger, and their food may more gradually be changed from milk to other feed, than can conveniently be done with a suckling.

Calves suddenly taken from a liberal supply of milk to grass, are frequently affected with a diarrhoea that sometimes proves fatal.

"I must acknowledge that I have been prejudiced against making any substitute for milk for the first ten or twelve weeks with any expectation of raising a thrifty animal, till last year, 1834, I had two heifer calves dropped the 4th of May; anxious to raise them, although of our common breed, but their dams were excellent milkers, I determined to try to raise them on whey. When they were four weeks old, I began to mix whey and a small quantity of shorts of wheat with their milk, and graduVOL. II.-N