y04 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. 



the small branches and shoots that stick upright ; 

 and, having a parcel of shoots lying horizontally, 

 lay earth upon the whole, all along upon the limb 

 from the point where it begins to touch the ground, 

 and also upon all the bottoms of all the shoots. 

 Then cut the shoots off at the points, leaving only 

 two or three joints or buds beyond the earth. The 

 earth, laid on should be good, and the ground should 

 be fresh-digged and made very fine and smooth be- 

 fore the branches be laid upon it. The earth, laid 

 on, should be from six inches to a foot thick. If 

 the limb, or mother branch, be very stubborn, a lit- 

 tle cut on the lower side of it will make it the more 

 easy to be held down. The ground should be kept 

 clean from weeds, and as cool as possible in hot 

 weather. Perhaps rocks or stones (not large) are 

 the best and coolest covering. These layers will 

 be ready to take up and plant out as trees after they 

 have been laid a year. 



279. SUCKERS are, in general, but poor things, 

 whether in the forest, or in the fruit garden. They 

 are shoots that come up/rom the roots, at a dis- 

 tance from the stem of the tree, or, at least, they 

 do not come out of that stem. They run to wood 

 and to suckers more than trees do that are raised 

 in any other way. Fruit trees raised from suckers 

 do not bear so abundantly, and such good fruit, as 

 trees raised from cuttings, slips or layers. A suck- 

 er is, in fact, a little tree with more or less of root 

 to it, and is, of course, to be treated as a tree. 



280. BUDDING. To have fruit trees by this 

 method, or by that of grafting, you must first have 

 stocks ; that is to say, a young tree to bud or graft 

 upon. What are the sorts of stocks proper foi 

 the sorts of fruit-trees respectively will be men- 

 tioned under the names of the latter. The stock 



