PROPAGATION BY CUTTINGS. 83 



one ^rear from its insertion, or with one season's growth, 

 have become a new tree. It is by these means we are 

 enabled to disseminate new varieties with such wonderful 

 rapidity. If a young tree, of a new variety, will make half 

 a dozen shoots the first season, each bearing half a dozen 

 buds, we can, if we have stocks to bud on, be in possession 

 of thirty trees of that variety in two years from the time 

 we obtained one tree, and in another year we may have 

 four times that number. The production of a tree from 

 a bud, a graft, a layer, or a cutting, is but the same thing, 

 effected by different means. In all the cases, a part of the 

 parent plant, with one or more buds attached, is separated 

 from it. The cutting, sometimes composed of one bud, or 

 joint, and sometimes of several, we put directly in the 

 ground, where it forms roots. The graft is a cutting in- 

 serted, not in the ground, but in the wood of another 

 plant, to which it unites. The bud inserted under the bark 

 of another tree, and the one buried in the ground, differ 

 only in this, that one draws its support directly from the 

 soil, and the other indirectly, through the tree to which 

 it unites. 



SECTION 1. PROPAGATION BY CUTTINGS. 



A cutting is a shoot, or part of a shoot, generally of one 

 season's growth. The length of the cutting varies from 

 a single eye, or joint, to a foot, according to the nature 

 of the species, or the circumstances under which it is to 

 be grown. The wood should be as stout and mature as 

 possible, and should be cut close and smooth to a bud at 

 both ends (fig. 58). In all cases, cuttings taken off close 

 to the old wood, with the base attached, as in fig. 59, are 

 more successful than when cut at several joints above ; 

 and in many cases, as in the quince, for example, an inch 

 or two of the old wood left attached to the base of the 

 cutting, as in fig. 60, render it still more certain of sue- 



