ESTABLISHING FORESTS BY PLANTING 397 



ting. There is no absorption through the bark. Shoot cuttings 

 are made both from growing wood and from ripened wood. When 

 made from growing wood the immature growing tips are cut from 

 the branches of the parent plant and immediately set in moist 

 sand in a greenhouse or frame where the moisture conditions of 

 both the soil and the atmosphere are under control. This method 

 of propagation is very largely used in floral and horticultural work. 

 It is sometimes used in the extensive propagation of Thuya, 

 Chamcecyparis, and other genera of the cedar tribe, particularly 

 when horticultural varieties that do not come true to seed are 

 desired. 



When shoot cuttings are used in silvicultural work they are 

 usually made from ripened wood. It is generally true that cut- 

 tings made from ripened wood root better although they require 

 more time and do not always make as good plants. Many spe- 

 cies that grow freely from ripened wood will not root at all when 

 the cuttings are made from immature wood. When properly 

 handled and when made from mature wood many woody species 

 can be made to strike root. Although shoot cuttings are exten- 

 sively used in nursery work, where trees and shrubs are grown 

 for park and decorative planting, their use in forestry practice is 

 confined to species which start quickly after the cuttings are set 

 and which grow rapidly, as illustrated in the various species of 

 willow, poplar, and sycamore. 



In the preparation of the cuttings, wood of the current year, or 

 at most but 2 years old, is gathered in late autumn or early 

 winter before heavy frosts have begun. The gathered wood is 

 either immediately made into cuttings or stored in a cool cellar 

 where it is covered with moist sand or sphagnum moss to keep it 

 from becoming overdry. The cuttings are made from 6 to 12 

 inches long, preferably from wood J to f inch in diameter. The 

 upper end of the cutting should be severed just above a normal 

 well-developed bud. The cut should be made at nearly right 

 angles with the shoot, only sufficiently oblique to permit a clean 

 cut without bruising the bark. It can be done best with a sharp 

 thin-bladed knife made especially for the purpose. 1 



1 In European practice cuttings are sometimes made with a special machine 

 with which three laborers one to operate the machine and two to assist in 

 bringing the wood to the machine and in tying the cuttings into bundles 

 can cut and tie 30,000 cuttings in a single day. 



