three or four inches of soil at the part where they are required to throw 

 out roots. They will generally root very freely when treated in this 

 manner, and furnish strong plants. When a layer is put down to supply 

 the place of a plant that has gone oft*, it must be carried across in a trench 

 sufficiently deep to prevent any interference with the cultivating imple- 

 ments. Plants may also be replaced by another method known technically 



Another way of Layering an old vine. 



as " Reversed Layering," by which the top of the shoot is inserted in the 

 ground, as shown by the illustration. The branches strike readily in this 

 position, and their future growth is not affected, it being precisely the 

 same as from an ordinary layer. As a matter of course, all the buds on 

 the looped branch should be removed excepting those required to form 

 the future plant. 



Grafting may be sometimes practised with advantage in working old 

 stocks of inferior kinds with better ones. Whenever the varieties are 

 not giving satisfaction, it will be advisable to replace them with better 

 kinds. Varieties are sometimes shy bearers when growing upon their 

 own roots owing to the peculiarities of soils and other local causes, but 

 bear freely when grafted upon other kinds. In Europe grafting is 

 largely practised since the advent of the Phylloxera insect which has 

 caused immense losses in the vineyards of France and other countries. 

 It has been found that the American species of Grapes, which are quite 

 distinct from the varieties of Vitis vinifera, afford stocks that can 

 withstand the attacks of the troublesome insect. There has been no 

 occasion so far to use these stocks in Australasia, and it is to be hoped 

 that there will be no need for them in the future. Grafting the ordinary 

 varieties of Grapes upon stocks of species indigenous to hot countries 

 may also prove serviceable in the tropical portions of Queensland and 

 North Australia, as also in some of the South Sea Islands. Baron von 

 Mueller, in his work, " Select Plants for Industrial Culture," directs 



