PROPAGATION. 59 



to be then most active. Gentle bottom heat, though not 

 essential, is still very desirable, and will conduce to the 

 success of the operation. Some plants are best prop- 

 agated by this means, and those too, which never natur- 

 ally produce suckers, may often be successfully grown by 

 sections of the roots. All plants do not equally admit 

 of propagation by division as cuttings, some woody 

 tissues refusing to emit roots under almost any circum- 

 stances. 



Nobody thinks of propagating the stone fruits, such as 

 the cherry, plum, peach, or apricot, by attempting to plant 

 cuttings, and yet some of these will emit roots very free- 

 ly, as we may often observe when the shoots or trimmings 

 are used as supports for plants in the green-house. ' The 

 plum tree is exceedingly apt to form new roots when 

 planted too deeply, an'd upon this fact depends the success 

 or failure of the finer varieties when worked upon certain 

 varieties of the wild stock. If the young trees are earthed 

 up in the nursery, and set rather deeply in the orchard, 

 they will soon establish a good set of roots of their own, 

 emitted above the junction of the scion and stock, which 

 is very preferable to the imperfect union and consequent 

 enlargement that often results from using uncongenial 

 stocks. The raspberry and blackberry do not grow so 

 well from cuttings of the wood, which is always biennial 

 in this genus, as they do from root-cuttings. 



In some parts of the country, peaches are mainly pro- 

 duced, or the favorite varieties are multiplied, by planting 

 the sprouts that come from the base of the trunk of the 

 trees ; these have little or no roots when taken off with 

 the mattock, but they soon establish themselves and make 



