AGRICULTURE FOR BEGINNERS 



are separated from the parent plant. This method is often 

 followed and is known as layering. It is a simple process. 

 Just bend the tip of a bough down and bury it in the earth 

 (see Fig. 47). The raspberry and blackberry form layers 

 naturally, but man often aids them by burying the over- 

 hanging tips in the earth, so that more tips may readily 

 root. The strawberry develops runners that root them- 

 selves in a similar fashion. 

 Grafts and buds are really 

 cuttings which, instead 

 of being buried in sand 

 to produce 

 roots of their 

 own, are 

 placed upon 



the roots of other plants. 

 Grafting and budding are practiced 

 when these methods are more convenient than 

 cutting or when the gardener thinks there is 

 danger of failure to get plants to take root 

 as cuttings. Neither grafting nor budding is, however, 

 necessary for the raspberry or the grape, for these propagate 

 most readily from cuttings. 



It is often the case that a budded or grafted plant is 

 more fruitful than a plant upon its own roots. In cases 

 of this kind, of course, grafts or buds are used. 



The white, or Irish, potato is usually propagated from 

 pieces of the potato itself. Each piece used for planting 

 bears one eye or more. The potato itself is really an 

 underground stem and the eyes are buds. This method of 

 propagation is therefore really a peculiar kind of cutting. 



FIG. 45. ROSE 

 CUTTING 



