THE NURSERY-LIST 323 



In vineyards, layering is often employed for the purpose of 

 filling vacancies. A strong cane is left, without pruning, on a 

 neighboring vine in the same row, and in the spring the end of it is 

 laid down in the vacant place. The vine is covered about a half 

 foot deep, and the free end of it is turned up perpendicularly out of 

 the earth and tied to a stake. By fall or the following spring the 

 layer should be sufficiently rooted to allow the parent cane to be 

 cut away. 



Green-layering is sometimes practiced on new and scarce 

 varieties, but strong plants are not obtained unless they are well 

 handled by forceful culture after they are separated. The growing 

 cane is layered in midsummer, usually by serpentine layering. 



Cuttings are usually employed by nurserymen to propagate the 

 grape. These are of many fashions. In all ordinary cases hard- 

 wood cuttings are made from the ripened 'canes in autumn or 

 winter when the vines are pruned. It is advisable to take the 

 cuttings before the canes have been exposed to great cold. Choose 

 only those canes that are well matured, solid and rather short- 

 jointed. In common practice, the cuttings are made in two-bud 

 lengths, the lower cut being close to the bud. The cuttings will 

 range from 6 to 10 inches in length. Some prefer three-bud 

 cuttings (Fig. 98), but unless the cane is very short-jointed, 

 such cuttings are too long to be planted and handled economi- 

 cally. Three-bud cuttings usually give stronger plants the first 

 season, because roots start from both joints as a rule. 



Very strong plants are obtained from mallet cuttings (Fig. 100), 

 but as only one such cutting can be made from a cane, unless the 

 cane bears very strong branches, they are not much used. Various 

 methods of peeling, slitting and slicing cuttings are recommended, 

 in order to extend the callusing process, but they are not used in 

 common or commercial practice. 



Grape cuttings are tied in bundles of 50 or 100, and stored in 

 sand, moss or sawdust in a cellar, until spring, when they are 

 planted in rows in the open. Some varieties, of which the Dela- 

 ware is an example, do not strike readily from cuttings. Some 

 growers start common cuttings of these under glass in spring. 

 Others bury the bundles of cuttings in a warm exposure in autumn, 

 with the butt ends up and about level with the surface of the ground. 

 This is supposed to induce callusing. (See page 87.) At the 

 approach of cold weather the cuttings are removed to a cellar, or 

 are heavily mulched and allowed to remain where buried. Storing 



