INOCULATION, or BUDDING, in gardening, is commonly practised upon all sorts of stone fruit; as nectarines, peaches, apricots, plums, cherries, as also upon oranges and jasmines; and indeed this is preferable to any sort of grafting for most sorts of fruit. The method of performing it is as follows: You must be provided with a sharp pen-knife with a flat haft, which is to raise the bark of the stock to admit the bud; and some found bals-mat, which should be soaked in water, to increase its strength, and render it more pliable: then having taken off the cuttings from the
trees you would propagate, you must choose a smooth part of the stock, about five or six inches above the surface of the ground, if designed for dwarfs; but if for standards, they should be budded six feet above-ground. Then with your knife make an horizontal cut across the rind of the stock, and from the middle of that cut make a slit downwards, two inches in length, that it may be in the form of a T; but you must be careful not to cut too deep, lest you wound the stock: then having cut off the leaf from the bud, leaving the foot-stalk remaining, you should make a cross cut, about half an inch below the eye, and with your knife slit off the bud, with part of the wood to it: this done, you must with your knife pull off that part of the wood which was taken with the bud, observing whether the eye of the bud be left to it or not; for all those buds which lose their eyes in stripping, are good for nothing: then having gently raised the bark of the stock with the flat haft of your pen-knife clear to the wood, thrust the bud therein, observing to place it smooth between the rind and wood of the stock, cutting off any part of the rind belonging to the bud that may be too long for the slit made in the stock; and so having exactly fitted the bud to the stock, tie them closely round with bals-mat, beginning at the under part of the slit, and so proceeding to the top, taking care not to bind round the eye of the bud, which should be left open.
When your buds have been inoculated three weeks or a month, those which are fresh and plump you may be sure are joined; and at this time you should loosen the bandage, which if it be not done in time, will injure if not destroy the bud. The March following cut off the stock sloping, about three inches above the bud, and to what is left fasten the shoot which proceeds from the bud: but this must continue no longer than one year; after which the stock must be cut off close above the bud. The time for inoculating is from the middle of June to the middle of August: but the most general rule is, when you observe the buds formed at the extremity of the same year's shoot, which is a sign of their having finished their spring-growth. The first sort commonly inoculated is the apricot; and the last the orange-tree, which should never be done till the latter end of August. And in doing this work, you should always make choice of cloudy weather; for if it be done in the middle of the day, when the weather is hot, the shoots will perspire so fast, as to leave the buds destitute of moisture.