256 THE NURSERY-MANUAL 



Winter cuttings. Make the cuttings in autumn as soon as the 

 leaves are shed. Use well-ripened unbranched wood of the season's 

 growth, produced in well-lighted situations. About 4 to 5 inches 

 is a suitable length. If a greenhouse is available, set the cuttings, 

 upright or at an angle, in a cutting-bed of 4 parts of basswood 

 sawdust to 1 part of peat. Maple or birch sawdust does nearly 

 as well as basswood. For winter cuttings, sawdust and peat 

 provide a better cutting-bed than peat and sand. Cedar or 

 pine sawdust is too acrid. Keep the cutting-bed at a temperature 

 of 55 to 65 for a month, when the cuttings will be callused. Then 

 change to 35 at night and 60 in the daytime. After about two 

 months, the starch-to-sugar transformation consequent on the chill- 

 ing will have taken place and the buds will begin to swell. Then 

 change again to a temperature of 55 at night and about 60 in the 

 daytime, the air above the cutting-bed being kept saturated or 

 nearly so. After new twigs have pushed from the upper buds, 

 the new growth has been terminated by the browning of the 

 tips, and the new leaves have reached their full size and ac- 

 quired the dark green color and texture of maturity, roots will 

 begin to form at the lower ends of the cuttings. Rooting is 

 usually followed by secondary twig growth. Ventilation may then 

 increase, and the rooted plants be treated thereafter as described 

 under "tubering." 



If no greenhouse is available, the cuttings should be made in 

 the autumn, laid in boxes, covered with pure moist basswood saw- 

 dust, and kept in an incubator for a month at a temperature of 

 55 to 60, in order to callus. For the remainder of the winter 

 the boxes should be kept at a temperature of 32 to 40, and as 

 soon as the frost is out of the ground in spring the cuttings should 

 be set very carefully, so as not to injure the calluses, in a cutting- 

 bed of sawdust and peat, or peat and sand, as already described, 

 in a coldframe. The frame should be kept as near 55 to 60 as 

 possible, as early and as long as the weather permits. The later 

 progress and treatment of the cuttings should be as already de- 

 scribed. 



Budding. For stocks use the strong new shoots from wild 

 bushes cut to the ground in the preceding dormant season. Bud 

 them in July or early August. Use buds from selected hybrids, 

 choosing from the season's growth those whose scales have turned 

 brown. In the hottest weather sticks of such buds can be carried 

 safely for one or two days if wrapped in clean moist muslin and 



