188G.] CHAPTERS OX PROPAGATING. 615 



CHAPTERS ON PROPAGATING. 



BY A XUltSERYMAN. 



T will be generally conceded that the art of propagating is not so 

 well understood — or perhaps it may be more correct to say — 

 not so fully and generally practised by foresters as by gardeners and 

 nurserymen. The requirements of the forester for a full knowledge 

 of the various modes of budding, grafting, and cutting making are 

 necessarily more limited than those of the gardener, who has to do 

 witli a greatly larger variety of subjects in the prosecution of his 

 craft, or of the nurseryman, who caters for them both in the pursuit 

 of his business. But it will be conceded also that foresters should 

 have a good sound knowledge of the art of propagating all the kinds 

 of trees and shrubs with which they have to deal. The more they 

 happen to know practically and theoretically/ the more efficient 

 practitioners will they be. And the practice of propagating is of 

 itself such a fascinating one that it absorbs the attention of every 

 one that engages in it, and gives a zest to his calling that can only, 

 I suppose, come of a sense of deeper insight and sympathy in nature's 

 works and laws. 



It is to the younger readers of Forestrij that I propose to address 

 myself, believing that most, if not all, of the older readers know as 

 much as I shall venture to teach, for I intend to confine myself 

 closely to the discussion of those modes of the art that are essential 

 to foresters in their practice with the comparatively limited numljer 

 of species and varieties of trees and shrubs that ordinarily they have 

 to deal with. Further, I may as well state here that I shall deal 

 more closely with the principles that regulate the practice of the art 

 than with the practice itself in detail, and without further preamble 

 I shall pass on to consider Proparjation hy Layering. This is one of 

 the most ancient modes of increasing plants, and it is not difficult 

 to imagine how it was first discovered. AVe have it suggested to us 

 in any ramble through tangled shrubberies and neglected woods 

 where the undergrowth becomes matted with root-growth. The 

 branches lying prone on the earth become, we observe, first abraded 

 on the surface next the ground, and by and by are covered over 

 with accumulations of leaves which wind and rain tend to increase 

 and bind in their place to rot and form mould, and thus foster the 

 emission of roots. The savage who roams in the primaeval forests 

 has better opportunities than we have to observe this suggestion of 

 one of nature's methods for the special purpose of increasing the 

 clothing of the earth. And the utilization of it would come with 



