BUDDING.--Budding is performed for precisely the same purpose as grafting, and, like grafting, it is performed in many different ways; and as long experience has ascertained the best method, namely, that of T budding, (1,) so called from the form of the two cuts that are made in the bark of the stock to receive the bud, or _shield-budding_, as it is sometimes called from the form of the piece of bark (2) on which the bud is seated, assuming the shape of a shield when it is prepared to be inserted within the T cut in the stock. The only solid difference between budding and grafting is this, that whereas in grafting you insert on the stock a _branch_ already produced, in budding, you insert only the _bud_. I shall proceed, in treating of this matter, in the same way that I did in the preceding article, namely, _as to the season proper for budding, the choosing and preparing of the bud, the operation of budding, and the future treatment of the plant budded_. _The Season for Budding_ is generally from the latter end of July to the latter end of August, the criterions being a plump appearance of the buds formed on the spring shoot of the same year, seated in the angle of a leaf, and a readiness in the bark of the stock to separate from the wood. _In Choosing and Preparing the Bud_, fix on one seated at about the middle of a healthy shoot of the mid-summer growth--these are, generally speaking, the most inclined to fruitfulness. Choose a cloudy day, if you have a choice of days at this season, and if not, perform your work early in the morning, or in the evening. The time being proper, you sever the branch on which you find the buds to your liking. Take this with you to the stock that you are going to bud, holding the branch in your left hand, the largest end downward; make a sloping cut from about an inch and a half below the bud to about an inch above it, suffering your knife to go through the bark, and about half way into the wood, cutting out wood and all. This keeping of the wood prevents the bud and its bark from drying while you are preparing the incision in the stock, and if you wish to carry buds of scarce sorts to any distance, you may do so safely by putting their ends in water, or in damp moss, but it is always safer, as well in grafting as in budding, to perform the operation with as much expedition as possible, but particularly it is so in budding.