VI. PROPAGATION. 



common codling apple may be raised in this manner with 

 the greatest facility. In a very dry and hot season, it 

 may not be amiss to lay a little litter upon the ground in 

 which the slips are planted in order to keep it cool. 



S02. LAYERS. You take a limb, or branch, of a tree 

 in the fall, or early in spring, or at Midsummer, and pull 

 it down in such a way as to cause its top, or small shoots 

 and twigs to lie upon the ground. Then fasten the limb 

 down by a peg or two, so that its own force will not 

 raise it up. Then prune off all the small branches and 

 shoots that stick upright ; and, having a parcel of shoots 

 lying horizontally, lay earth upon the whole, all along 

 upon the limb from the point where it begins to touch 

 the ground, and also upon all the bottoms of all the shoots. 

 Then cut the shoots off at the points, leaving only two 

 or three joints or buds beyond the earth. The earth laid 

 on should be good, and the ground should be fresh-digged 

 and made very fine and smooth before the branches be 

 laid upon it. The earth laid on should be from six 

 inches to a foot thick. If the limb, or mother branch, 

 be very stubborn, a little cut on the upper side of it will 

 make it more easy to be held down. The ground should 

 be kept clean from weeds, and as cool as possible in hot 

 weather. Perhaps rocks or stones (not large) are the 

 best and coolest covering. These layers will be ready to 

 take up and plant out as trees after they have been laid 

 a year. In cases where the branches intended to be laid 

 cannot be bent down sufficiently near to the ground 

 without danger of breaking them off, a box of earth 

 or a pan with notches in the sides to lay the branch in, 

 may be used. Vines may, by means of pots with open- 



