12 THE NURSERY. [JAN. 



be removed any time this month if mild weather ; but this should 

 not be generally practised to evergreens this season, especially where 

 smart frosts may be expected to follow. 



Prune honeysuckles and roses, and all other kinds of hardy deci- 

 duous flowering shrubs that want it, training each with a single 

 stem, and trimming their heads as you shall see occasion ; that is, 

 either to cut out or shorten all straggling shoots in such manner as 

 you shall see necessary to keep their heads somewhat to a regular 

 form. 



In open and settled weather you may now transplant, where neces- 

 sary, most sorts of hardy deciduous flowering shrubs, both in the 

 nursery order, and for shrubbery plantations, &c., in a dry soil; but 

 where the soil is apt to lodge wet there should not be any planted 

 therein before February. 



Plantations of fruit-tree stocks, for grafting and budding upon, 

 may be made at any time of this month, if mild open weather. 

 Many of those raised from seed, &c., last spring, or the year before, 

 will be fit for this, digging them up out of the seed-bed, &c., with 

 their full roots, and let them be planted in nursery rows, three or 

 four feet asunder, and fifteen or eighteen inches distant from each 

 other in the rows ; and when they have attained one or two years' 

 growth in these rows, will be proper for budding and grafting. See 

 the Nursery in October for the method of planting ; that of March 

 for grafting, and July and August for budding. 



You may still make layers in open weather of many sorts of deci- 

 duous trees and shrubs that you desire to increase. 



This work of laying down the branches of shrubs and trees to pro- 

 pagate them, is very easily performed ; and there are a great many 

 kinds of trees and shrubs to be increased by this operation, in the 

 manner following : 



In the first place it must be remarked, that the young branches 

 that were produced last summer, are the most proper parts to be 

 layed ; for these will put out roots more freely than the branches that 

 are a year or two older. Observing further, that many of the shrub 

 kinds branching out near the earth, afford an opportunity of laying 

 them with great facility, but such as run up with tall -stems, and those 

 of the tree kinds, require that some strong young plants, principally 

 deciduous, with stems one, two, or three inches thick, be cut down 

 near the ground a year or two before to form stools to furnish a sup- 

 ply of shoots near the earth, convenient for laying therein. The 

 ground must be dug about the shrub or tree that is to be layed ; and 

 as you go on bring down the branches, and fasten them in the ground 

 with hooked pegs, observing to lay down all the young wood on each 

 branch into the earth, covering therewith the body of each layer three 

 or four inches deep, and fastening each also with a peg, if necessary, 

 and raise the tops upright out of the earth. 



But in laying some hard-wooded trees and shrubs it is necessary 

 to slit the layer by making a gash with a knife on the under side, 

 slitting it an inch or more upward, so laying that part in the earth, 

 keeping the gash a little open, which will greatly assist the rooting 

 by promoting the emission of fibres at the cut part. And this may 



