616 CHAPTERS ON PROPAGATING. [Feb. 



the necessities that spring out of the increasing wants that are 

 the outcome of civilisation. 



Layering may be described as perhaps the most primitive mode 

 of artificially increasing the stock of any shrub or tree, and was 

 probably for long the only way known of perpetuating such 

 desirable varieties as did not come true from seeds. It is simply 

 the art of rooting a branch while it is yet attached to the parent 

 stock. The introduction of other methods has greatly curtailed its 

 use even in nurseries in recent years. Budding and grafting when 

 suitable stocks can be found are preferred to the slower and more 

 laborious practice of layering. Experience also has shown that 

 many of the subjects formerly believed capable of being increased 

 only by layering may now be propagated by cuttings freely enough 

 for all purposes. These circumstances, combined with a not very 

 well authenticated but commonly entertained opinion that trees 

 and shrubs, especially the former, propagated by layering are 

 shorter-lived than those obtained by any other method, have tended 

 much to lessen the practice. Still there are a good many species 

 and varieties of trees and shrubs that are and must continue to be 

 propagated by layers till our knowledge and possession of suitable 

 stocks to work them upon by either budding or grafting or in-arching 

 is more extended, for they are not amenable to the more easy way 

 of increase by cuttings. 



The season for layering is usually regulated in nurseries by con- 

 venience, and the most convenient time is either autumn or winter. 

 The stools, as they are called, in other words the parent plants, must 

 be cleared of the previous crop of layers, which may be planted 

 out, and for the time be done with before a fresh crop can well be 

 provided for, and this is most conveniently done in autumn or 

 winter. This system answers well even though it is theoretically 

 somewhat oj)posed to the physiological principles on which success 

 is believed to rest. The theory is, that complete success in layering 

 depends on a check being given to the descending sap at a point on 

 the branch that is brought in contact with the ground. Hence it 

 follows that the check should be administered at a time when 

 the descent of the sap is most abundant, which would probably in 

 most cases be about midsummer. But experience has taught us 

 that this work may be done any time in autumn or winter, the 

 earlier, however, the better, with unvarying success, and that it is 

 never well to leave it over till spring, which is not only the worst 

 time for the work, but is usually overburdened with other operations 

 which can only be well performed at that season. But the chief 

 reason for doing the work in autumn and winter is, as has already 

 been observed, that the previous crop can be cleared away, which is 



