Propagation of Tropical Fruit Trees and Other Plants, Vol. 1 (Classic Reprint)

In the case where the section of bark has to be cut by a knife the marks will indicate just where it is necessary to make the section large, so that a tight fit will be secured. METHODS WHICH SHOW BEST RESULTS. In the course of theD epartment experiments the writer discovered that by the use of a method of attaching buds described in the seventeenth century the finer varieties of the mango, with skillful handling, may be propagated quite as easily as the peach or other fruit tree. APPLYING THE BUDS. Two or three-year-old seedlings and moderate-sized trees may be used as stocks on which to bud approved varieties of the mango. The stems selected for the reception of the buds should be at least an inch in thickness. When of this diameter, both wood and bark are thoroughly ripe, and the union of the scion with the stock will be easily accomplished if the operation of inserting the buds is performed carefully. The method of budding which has been found to work most satisfactorily (PI. II, fig. 1) consists in removing a rectangular piece of bark from the stock and inserting a piece similar in shape and a trifle larger in size, having a bud in the center, from a branch of a desirable variety. This method of budding was described by Robert Sharrock in hisH istory of the Propagation and Improvement of Vegetables, published in 1672. The only departure from Sharrock smethod of budding as used in the case of the mango at the present time is that the bud, instead of being taken from new growth, must be selected from wood old enough to have lost its foliage. This means that the bud wood will sometimes be over 2years old. The use of bark of this age and even older insures success in budding the mango, as it unites rapidly with bark of a similar age on seedling stocks or on branches of trees. To a certain extent success depends upon the precision with which the section of b
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)