CUTTA G E. 



47 



not contain vegetable matter, as such materials holds too much 

 water and it is often directly injurious to the cutting. A coarse 

 sharp, clean sand is the best material for use in-doors. Very 

 fine sand packs too hard, and should" nbt'be used. Some propa- 

 gators prefer to use fine gravel, composed of particles from an 

 eighth to a fourth of an inch in diameter, and from which all 

 fine material has been washed. This answers well for green 

 cuttings if a propagating-frame is used to check evaporation and 

 attention is given to watering, because drainage is so perfect and 

 the material so quickly permeable that uniformity of treatment 

 is secured. Damping-off is less liable to occur in such material 

 than in denser soils. The same advantages are to some extent 

 present in sphagnum moss and cocoanut fibre, both of which 

 are sometimes used in place of earth. The "silver sand" used 

 by florists is a very clean and white sand which derives its par- 

 ticular advantages from the almost entire absence of any vege- 

 table matter. But it is not now considered so essential to suc- 

 cessful propagation as it was formerly, and fully as good 

 material may often be found in a common sand-bank. Cut- 

 tings which strike strongly and vigorously may be placed in a 

 soil made of light garden loam with twice its bulk of sand added 

 to it. All soils used for in-door cuttage should be sifted or 

 screened before using to bring them to a uniform texture. 



Hard-wood cuttings are commonly planted out-doors in mel- 

 low and light loam, well trenched. Only fine and well-rotted 

 manure should be applied to the cutting bed, and it should be 

 well mixed with the soil. In most cases, a well-drained soil 

 gives best results, but some cuttings root and grow well in wet 

 soils or even in standing water, as poplars, willows, some of the 

 dogwoods, plane-tree and others. 



Bottom heat is always essential to the best success wilh cut- 

 tings. In out-door work this is supplied by the natural heat of 

 the soil in spring and summer, and it is often intensified by 

 burying hard-wooded cuttings bottom end up for a time before 

 planting them. This operation of inverting cuttings is often 

 practiced with grapes, particularly with the Delaware and 

 others which root with some difficulty. The cuttings are tied in 



