Propagation 



may then be prepared indoors when the weather is 

 too wet for outdoor work. 



After the cuttings are prepared they may again 

 be tied in bundles and plunged in the soil until the 

 cutting bed is ready. 



The best place for this cutting bed is the north 

 side of a wall or the shady side of a fence. A line 

 should be stretched across the bed and a small trench 

 taken out with a spade to a depth of about 4 inches. 

 The cuttings are then placed about 3 or 4 inches 

 apart along the line against the straight side of the 

 trench. If the soil is of a heavy nature it is a 

 good plan to fill the lower half of the trench with 

 sand or road-grit, but on a sandy soil this is not 

 necessary, and in that case the soil which was taken 

 out will simply be put back again. The soil must 

 be made firm by treading after the trench is filled, 

 and this treading should be repeated during the 

 winter, especially after frosty weather. 



The main points to remember are : - 



a. Select ripe shoots. 



6. See that the knife is sharp. 



c. .Always cut close to a bud. 



d. Quite 4 inches of the cutting must be below the 

 ground level. 



2. BY LAYERS. The cuttings from certain plants 

 will not readily produce rootlets, and in such cases 

 layering is practised. 



In this method of propagation the young shoots 

 are bent downwards and partly buried in the soil, 

 being thus induced to produce rootlets whilst still 

 attached to the parent plants. 



Sometimes a " tongue " is made in the shoot to be 

 layered, as in the case of carnations (see Fig. 27), but 



59 



