BUD PROPAGATION 



125 



secured when the cuttings are made in the fall and then 

 buried until spring in sand in the cellar. These cuttings 

 are usually six to ten inches long. They are not idle while 

 they rest. The lower end calluses or heals, and the roots 

 form more readily when the cutting is planted in the 

 spring. But if the proper season has passed, take cuttings 

 at any time in winter, plant them in a deep 

 box in the window, and watch. They will 

 need no shading or special care. Grape, 

 currant, gooseberry, willow, and poplar 

 readily take root from the hardwood. 

 Fig. 164 shows a currant cutting. It has 

 only one bud above the ground. 



The Graft. When the cutting is inserted 

 in a plant rather than in the soil, it is a 

 graft ; and the graft may grow. In this 

 case the cutting grows fast to the other 

 plant, and the two become one. When 

 the cutting is inserted in a plant, it is no 

 longer called a cutting, but a cion; and the 

 plant in which it is inserted is called the 

 stock. Fruit trees are grafted in order 

 that a certain variety or kind may be per- 

 petuated, as a Baldwin or Ben Davis vari- 

 ety of apple, Seckel or Bartlett pear, Navel 

 or St. Michael orange. 



Plants have preferences as to the stocks on which they 

 ^uill grow ; but we can find out what their choice is only 

 by making the experiment. The pear grows well on the 

 quince, but the quince does not thrive on the pear. 

 The pear grows on some of the hawthorns, but it is an 

 unwilling subject on the apple. Tomato plants will grow 

 on potato plants and potato plants on tomato plants. 



FIG. 164. CUR- 

 RANT CUTTING. 



