PROPAGATION OF PLANTS. 



227 



For 



ities where the winter is severe, it is best to take 

 the cutting before cold weather. 



Directions for making hard wood cuttings : 

 this purpose, select the most vigorous branches 

 of such plants as the gooseberry, currant, and 

 many varieties of the grape and flowering 

 shrubs, and cut off that portion which con- 

 sists of last year's growth (Fig. 66). 



(b) Divide each of these stems into cuttings 

 of at least two. nodes. (If the internode is 

 short, as in the currant and gooseberry, sev- 

 eral nodes may be included in the cutting.) 



.The stem should be cut off immediately below 

 the lower node and allowed to extend one- 

 fourth of an inch above the upper one (Fig. 

 69). 



(c) These should be tied in bunches of 

 from twenty-five to fifty each, labeled, and 

 packed in boxes of green sawdust or moist 

 sand, and kept in a cool, damp place until 

 spring. 



(d} The cuttings may 

 be started in a propagating- 

 box (see page 226) or hot- 

 bed as early as February 

 or March, and transferred wood buds. 



b. Flower or fruit hud. 



to the open ground as r . stipule scar. 

 soon as the weather per- rf - i<eafscar. 



e. Growth of one 



mits. Where this is not season. 



practicable, they may re- / Two-year-old wood. 

 main packed in the sawdust 

 until favorable weather, 

 and placed at once in the 

 open ground, which has been prepared by deep plowing 

 and thorough pulverizing. 



K1G. 66. TWIG OF WHITE ELM 

 (L'fmus Americana, I,.) 



