26 DECORATIVE PLANTS, TREES AND SHRUBS 



great liberties and simply chop them up by handfuls with a sharp 

 bill-hook, cutting them in lengths of about 9 or 10 inches. We do 

 this in October and November, spading them into trenches in the 

 open ground, treading them in firmly and leaving not more than 

 2 inches above the soil. They remain in the cutting rows for one 

 year, are then lifted and trimmed and transplanted into nursery 

 quarters, where in two years, after being cut back, they make bushy, 

 saleable stuff. 



GOLDEN PRIVET FROM CUTTINGS 



The privet with the greatest future before it, especially for the 

 nurseryman, is the golden variety. We say " for the nurseryman " 

 because they strike almost as easily as the green variety, are fairly 

 freely produced, take up no more space, but are worth twice as much. 

 More care is advisable in the making of the cuttings and they have 

 to be dealt with singly. Though the plants do not produce as many 

 cuttings as ovaltfolium at a time, yet in the aggregate a plant 

 produces almost as much stock by reason of the smaller lengths into 

 which the wood is cut for cuttings and the supplementary methods 

 of propagation which go on throughout the growing season. When 

 the hedges are clipped at the end of May or in early June the soft 

 tips are made into cuttings and struck under glass ; in August more 

 wood, slightly harder, is available, and this is struck under the 

 ordinary hand-lights, as described in Chapter III ; in October and 

 November cuttings of riper wood are inserted in ordinary frames, 

 or in warm localities are made longer and rooted side by side with 

 the green variety in the open ground. Thus with these three 

 distinct seasons for propagation we are fully justified in claiming 

 that the golden privet is almost as prolific of stock as is its green 

 parent. 



CONIFERS FOR HEDGES 



While those referred to are the best known and more generally 

 used, there are several other no less effective hedge plants whose 

 uses are more local than general, but which in suitable climatic and 

 other surroundings are as desirable as any. Of these we would give 

 first place to Cupressus macrocarpa, a very elegant, light and free- 

 growing conifer, which might even be preferred to thuja lobbi in 



