148 THE NEW HORTICULTURE. 



grow just as readily as if made with the sharpest knife. I 

 have used, for years, a pair of No. 4 sliding pruning shears for 

 cuttings, simply bolting the handle with the curved jaw down 

 flat on the 2-inch plank ; but last year, on retiring from busi- 

 ness, I told my friend, F. W. Malley, who was just starting, 

 of this method, and suggested that he rig up something 

 larger, and the machine here represented is the result of his 

 ingenuity. There is no patent on it, and we present it to all 

 who choose to make and use it. 



In planting, always set cuttings perpendicular, and not 

 slanting, as is often directed, under a mistaken idea that they 

 root better thus. There is no difference in the rooting, but a 

 slanting cutting makes a crooked and unsalable tree. All 

 cuttings should also be made with a square cross cut, as they 

 strike better that way, and make a much more evenly-bal- 

 anced system of roots, than from a sloping cut. A large 

 pile of cutting wood should be collected before going to 

 work, and it will greatly facilitate matters if, in picking or 

 gathering it up in the orchard, all the buds or ends are kept 

 one way. 



While on the subject of bruising roots or ends of cuttings, 

 to prove that all the injunctions about making smooth cuts of 

 either is humbug, one only has to dig a tree with the spade 

 and heel it in a few weeks, to see that roots strike from the 

 rough cut ends just as freely as if made with a sharp knife. 

 The main point in growing cuttings in the early fall is to 

 plant a little deeper than in winter or spring. Eight inches 

 is about the best length of cuttings, and six inches put under 

 the ground for early fall planting, but in winter and spring 

 thousands of cuttings are annually lost from being planted 

 too deep. It is always best to plant on a good ridge every- 

 where in winter, for the ground is dryer and warms up more 

 quickly, and three or four inches is deep enough, and, if the 

 ground remains very wet, a cutting inserted only two inches 

 will nearly always grow. If the ground is a little dry it is a 

 good plan to pass over and press firmly, next to the rows, 

 with the foot. I did it always, unless the soil was too wet. 



Now, in view of what is said elsewhere on pruning pear 



