_Operation of Budding._--Cut off the leaf under which the bud is situated, but leave its foot-stalk, (2, _a_,) and by this hold it between your lips, while with your budding-knife you cut two straight lines in the stock at the place where you wish to insert the bud, and this should be where the bark is smooth, free from any bruises or knots, and on the side rather from the mid-day suns. Of these lines let the first be horizontal, (1,) and let the next be longitudinal, beginning at the middle of the first cut and coming downward. Let them, in short, describe the two principal bars of the Roman letter T. You have now to take out from the bark on which the bud is, the piece of wood on which the bark is, and which has served you, up to this time, to preserve the bud and bark from drying and shrinking. But this is a nice matter. In doing it you must be careful not to endanger the root of the bud, as it is called, because in that is its existence. The bark, (if the season be proper for budding,) will easily detach itself from this piece of wood, but still it requires a very careful handling to get it out without endangering the root of the bud. Hold the bud on your fore-finger, and keep your thumb on the wood opposite; then with the fore-finger and thumb of the other hand, bend backward and forward the lower end of the shield, and thus coax the wood to disengage itself from the bark; and when you find it decidedly doing so, remove your thumb from it, and the whole piece of wood will come out, leaving you nothing but a piece of bark of about two and a half inches long, with a bud and foot-stalk of a leaf on it. If the root of the bud be carried away with the piece of wood, you will perceive a small cavity where it ought to be. In this case, throw away the bud and try another.