CHAPTER XIII. 



Propagation by Cuttings. 



WHILE a great variety of other trees and plants grow 

 well from cuttings at the North, here, in South 

 Texas, we find the conditions so favorable that the 

 Le Conte, Garber and Kieffer pears also grow more or less 

 freely from cuttings. But having from the beginning kept 

 up my habit of experimenting, some years ago, after losing 

 most of our cutting crops several times, either from too much 

 or too little rain in the winter, I concluded to try early fall 

 planting. So, beginning about the first of August, I stripped 

 the leaves from the young pear canes as soon as cut off, and 

 every Saturday planted one hundred cuttings. I kept this up 

 until December, and found, to my surprise, that of those set 

 between the i5th of September and the I5th of October, if 

 the ground was reasonably moist, or if well watered, fully 90 

 per cent, grew, and for the last three years I practised this 

 method with perfect success. I have had them to grow six 

 inches before cold weather, if the fall was seasonable. The 

 philosophy of it is, that at that time the wood is mature and 

 the ground still warm, while the gradually decreasing tem- 

 perature gives a cool atmosphere or head. In fact, in early 

 fall the earth is a natural hotbed, and grape cuttings, as well 

 as pear and many other trees, will also root well. I see no 

 reason why the same conditions should not prevail about the 

 first of August at the North. 



I will now give a method for the rapid making of cuttings 

 and scions, which will prove very valuable to nurserymen. 

 Figure i in the cut (page 147), represents the end of the 

 handle of the machine, with a thin, sharp cutting blade at 7, 

 all made in one piece and with the end of the blade fastened 

 by a bolt, on which it works, to a standard (3), which is made 

 of ^6 -inch thick and 2-inch wide sheet iron. Figure 2 repre- 



(146) 



