330 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



PROPAGATION BY CUTTINGS. 



In his address before the American nurserymen Mr. J. Jenkins, of Winona, 

 Ohio, gives a number of very practical suggestions, from which we cull as 

 follows : 



Most varieties of grape-vines, currants, gooseberries, roses, and much of the 

 shrubbery supplied by nurserymen, grow readily, and are grown from out-door 

 cuttings. Whether of trees or vines, in-door or out-door propagation, the 

 oi^eratioii of nature in the growth of the cutting is the same. The bud holds 

 within its brown envelope the principle of life, which extends through the cells 

 that have carried the circulation, extended the growth, and established the 

 bud. After the cutting is divided, nature's first effort; is to form a callus with 

 the descending cells that would have gone to extend and enlarge the roots on 

 the mother vine. 



If instead of abruptly dividing the cane or shoot to be used as a cutting, a 

 system of ringing or strangulation be followed, every bud may be made to pro- 

 duce a plant. This strangulation or ringing is performed on soft or green 

 wood by tying thread tightly around the point where the cutting is to be 

 separated, and on hard wood by a ring of copper wire drawn closely. This will 

 cause an enlargement and a deposition of cambium at the point of arrest, and 

 make the growth of the cutting thus prepared, when finally separated and 

 planted, almost as certain as though they already had roots. 



One very successful experiment with out-door cuttings of the grape was 

 performed by allowing the canes to remain on the mother vines until the buds 

 had started a growth of one-hali inch or more and the leaves had begun to 

 unfold, every eye was separated, tlie old wood phiced entirely below the soil, 

 the new growth just appearing above the ground, shaded carefully, with a result 

 of full eighty per cent of vine. 



In the usual manner of preparing cuttings greater success follows when the 

 cuttings are taken off immediately on the fall of the leaf before freezing, when 

 they should immediately be packed away in moss or soil until time for planting 

 in spring. 



Cuttings of currants and gooseberries taken in August and September may 

 be immediately planted, covered with a heavy mulch of straw to carry them 

 through the winter. 



Grape cuttings irom out-door planting may be made with single eyes, but 

 all the advantages of a two-bud cutting may be retained by sim])ly cutting 

 across the node with a sharp knife or with shears, commencing the cut opposite 

 and one-eighth of an inch or more below the bud and finishing one-eighth of 

 an inch or more above. 



* ^;: * :|c * * * * * * * + * * 



Upon the subject of rose cuttings the Rural Canadian says that European 

 horticulturists have lately adopted a way of making them root with more cer- 

 tainty, by bending the shoot, and inserting both ends into the ground, leaving 

 a single bud uncovered at the middle and on the surface of the ground. The 

 cuttings are about ten inches long, and are bent over a stick laid flat on the 

 ground, holes being dug on each side of the stick for the reception of the ends 

 of the shoot. Tlie roots form only at the lower end of the shoot, but the other 

 end being buried, prevents evaporation and drying up. A correspondent of the 

 London Garden states that he has tried this along with the old mode, and that 

 while the weaker cuttings of the latter have shown symptoms of drying and 

 failure, all the former have grown vigorously. 



