338 



APPENDIX H. 



Fig. 76. 



oval form and 12 inches long by 10 inches broad, and having a 

 depth of 10 inches. These baskets should be made of green 

 osier, that they may remain intact during a year. When the 

 proper time for making the layer has arrived, the shoots to be 

 operated upon being before chosen, a hole is pierced in the bot- 

 tom of the basket at the point A, by which the shoot enters ; 

 each basket is then placed at a depth of 6 inches in the soil, 

 and they are then filled with earth of good quality, to which 

 has been added a portion of vegetable mold. Lastly, the top 

 of the shoot is then cut in such a manner that only two buds or 

 germs are left above the soil, and the whole is sustained by a 

 prop. The operation is terminated by taking off all the buds 

 on that part of the stem situated between the mother branch 

 and the basket. This suppression is necessary to prevent these 

 buds from absorbing the sap in their development at the expense 

 of the layer. During the summer the two buds on the layer 



