PLANTING AND CARE OF TREES 53 



character of the soil and the kind of treatment. In the moving of 

 young trees from one position to another^ great care should be 

 exercised in preventing the roots from drying out. This precaution 

 is especially necessary in the handling of conifers. 



PROPAGATION BY CUTTINGS 



It is a common thing to find willow twigs that have fallen from 

 trees and taken root. The branches of some species of willow are 

 so brittle that they are broken off by the wind. Some of these fall 

 in the water and are carried down stream for many miles and are 

 finally washed ashore^, where they find conditions favorable for 

 rooting. 



From nature, therefore, man has learned that trees may be 

 propagated by cuttings. Most woody plants when given proper 

 conditions may be propagated in this way. Species differ greatly 

 in respect to their amenability to this method of propagation. 

 Poplars and Willows are very easily propagated from cuttings, and 

 the desired result often may be attained more readily by this means 

 than by the collecting and planting of seed. Some species, on 

 the other hand, are quite difficult to propagate in this way, and with 

 such the practice is to grow them from seed. The chief advan- 

 tage in propagation by cuttings is the saving of time. Many trees 

 started from cuttings are large enough at the end of the second 

 or third season for planting in their pennanent positions on lawns 

 or along roadsides. Furthermore, there are many horticultural va- 

 rieties, like the wee23ing forms, that do not come true from seed 

 and these must be propagated either from cuttings or grafted on 

 seedlings of the same or some closely-related species. 



Mahing Cuttings — Cuttings from woody plants are usually 

 gathered in the late fall or early winter. There are three distinct 

 kinds employed in the propagation of trees, namely: simple, heel, 

 and mallet. (See fig. 24). 



The simple cutting is employed generally with such trees as the 

 Willow and Poplar. It consists of a straight portion of a shoot 

 from six to twelve inches in length, nearly uniform in size 

 throughout, and containing tw^o or more buds. At the lower end 

 it is usually cut off just below a bud, because roots develop more 

 readily at the joints. Some species, like the Apple, Pear, Plum, 

 Cherry, Hawthorn, Mountain Ash, Elm and Ailanthus, are more 



