PROPAGATION. 61 



per end of the shoot if this has been pinfeed in contact 

 with the earth. Cuttings will sometimes be set up-side 

 down, when we find the callus upon the smaller end, and 

 roots will be emitted from that portion whence we should 

 have expected to see the branches issue. Upon this fact,- 

 and to multiply the chances of living, has been based the 

 French method, as it is called, or that of inserting both 

 ends of the cuttings. The' common mode, (fig. 1), is to 



w... 



Fig. 1. FRENCH AND COMMON MODES OF SETTING CUTTINGS. 



set the cuttings in a slanting direction in the ground, so 

 placed that the upper eye or bud only shall reach the sur- 

 face. Formerly there was a preference for long cuttings, 

 and these were often made eighteen inches or more in 

 length. The practice with most of our cultivators has 

 been modified in this particular, and they have reduced 

 the length of the slips to six and eight inches, so as to 

 have in grape wood about three or four eyes. Some have 

 gone still further, and use but two, even for out-door 

 planting of the grape, and some have been very success- 

 ful when 'using but a single joint. The Germans have ad- 

 vocated longer cuttings, upon the theory that there was a 

 retroaction in the pith of the internodes and in all the 

 buds of the cutting, upon the lower point, enabling it to 

 push roots more strongly from a long than from a short 



