58 AMERICAN POMOLOGY. 



soil, out of doors, in the cellar, or in a cold frame or pit, 

 and a very important step in the progress of their growth 

 will commence at once. The leafless sticks are not dead, 

 and whenever the temperature will admit of the quiet in- 

 terchange of fluids among their cells, this curious function 

 will go on, and will be accompanied by the development 

 or generation of new cells that soon cover the cut surfaces, 

 constituting what the gardeners call the callus. This is 

 the first step toward growth, and it most 1'eadily occurs 

 when the earth is warmer than the air ; hence the value of 

 fall planting, whether of trees or of cuttings, if done be- 

 fore the earth has been chilled, and hence also, the impor- 

 tance of bottom heat in artificial propagation. If on the 

 contrary the air be warm and the ground cold, the buds are 

 often stimulated to burst forth, before the rootlets can 

 have started. The expanding foliage which so delights 

 the tyro in propagation, offers an extended surface for 

 evaporation, the contained juices of the cutting itself are 

 soon exhausted, no adequate supply is furnished, and the 

 hopeful plant soon withers, or damps off, and dies.* The 

 cutting, like the seed, must have " first the root, then the 

 blade." The length of time that is allowed for cuttings to 

 prepare for rooting, if they are designed for spring plant- 

 ing, should be as great as possible, and the circumstances 

 under which they are kept should be such as to favor the 

 development of the cells, so that roots may form freely 

 with the breaking of the buds, if not before. 



Root-cuttings should be made in the spring, just before 

 the usual period of the bursting of the buds in the plant 

 to be propagated. The tendency to develop buds appears 



* Because it had no root, it withered away. Mat. 13, 6. 



