_Time for cutting Scions._--The scions may be cut at any time after the cessation of growth in the autumn, even before the leaves have fallen, until the buds burst in the spring, always avoiding severely cold or frosty weather, because of the injury to the tree that results from cutting at such a time, though the frost may not have injured the scion. The best nurserymen prefer to cut them in the autumn, before they can have been injured by cold. They should be carefully packed in fine earth, sand, or sawdust, and placed in the cellar or cave. The leaves stripped from them, make a very good packing material; moss is often used, where it can be obtained, but the best material is saw-dust. This latter is clean, whereas the sand and soil will dull the knife. If the scions should have become dry and shriveled, they may still be revived by placing them in soil that is moderately moist, not wet--they should not, by any means, be placed in water, but should be so situated that they may slowly imbibe moisture. When they have been plumped, they should be examined by cutting into their tissues; if these be brown, they are useless, but if alive, the fresh cut will look clear and white, and the knife will pass as freely through them as when cutting a fresh twig. The after-treatment of the grafts consists in removing the sprouts that appear upon the stock below the scion, often in great numbers. These are called robbers, as they take the sap which should go into the scion. It is sometimes well to leave a portion of these as an outlet for excess. When the graft is tardy in its vegetation, and in late grafting, it is always safest to leave some of these shoots to direct the circulation to the part, and thus insure a supply to the newly introduced scion; all should eventually be removed, so as to leave the graft supreme. It may sometimes be necessary to tie up the young shoot which pushes with vigor, and may fall and break with its own weight before the supporting woody fibre has been deposited; but a much better policy is to pinch in the tip when but a few inches long, and thus encourage the swelling and breaking of the lateral buds, and produce a more sturdy result. This is particularly the case in stock-grafts and in renewing an orchard by top-grafting. PROPAGATION.--SECTION III.--BUDDING.