296 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



are the best, because they can be procured easily, abun- 

 dantly, and cheaply ; they will bear carriage to any dis- 

 tance, are exceedingly tenacious of life, and they make 

 thriftier plants. Cuttings may be set, either where they 

 are to remain, in which case several should be set, to 

 allow for failures, and only the strongest finally retained ; 

 or, they may be set in nursery rows, eight inches apart. 

 Cuttings should be inserted about eight inches deep, 

 and have two eyes or buds above the surface. The two 

 buds are merely precautionary ; that if one fails the other 

 may sprout ; one only, and that the strongest, should finally 

 be permitted to grow. 



An old and skillful cultivator of the vine says that cut- 

 tings are the best of all modes of securing a supply of 

 vines. "For my pai-t I am for scions without roots, 

 after many experiments. All the advantage the one with 

 roots has over the other, is that they are more sure to 

 live ; but they will not in general, make as thrifty plants^ 

 — tjT. J. Dufour. 



This only objection to cuttings — that a part of them fail 

 to root — is of little practical importance, as they are easily 

 obtained in any quantity. 



AUTUMNAL MANAGEMENT OF FRUIT-TREES. 



Orchaedists and cultivators of garden-fruit will have 

 need of all their skill to prepare tender fruit-trees for win- 

 ter. It is the misfortune, alike of the English summers, and 

 of ours in the West, that trees do not properly ripen their 

 wood. But in Great Britain it is from the want of enough, 

 and in America, from too much summer. Our long and hot 

 summers give two or three separate growths to fruit-trees, 

 and the last one is usually in progress at a period so late 



