208 PROPAGATION. 



has circular incisions made above and below each bed 

 along its whole length ; it is then pegged down on 

 the surface of the ground, and lightly covered with 

 a sandy compost. Each bud will produce a shoot 

 rising erectly in the air, and root fibres being at the 

 same time ejected from the incisions, independent 

 plants, separable in the autumn, are soon formed. The 

 long sucker-like shoots of rose-trees are well calcu- 

 lated for this mode of propagation ; and as some sorts 

 of these eject roots sooner from young than from old 

 wood, practitioners omit ringing the bark, and wait 

 till the young shoots produced from the layers are 

 five or six inches long : a tongue incision is then made 

 at the bottom of each, and embedded in sand, they 

 readily make roots ; the old layer remaining to produce 

 other shoots, which may be struck in like manner. 



Grafting. This is a very ancient custom. When 

 the fruit-grower found that he could not continue his 

 improved fruit by sowing their seed, he had recourse 

 to engrafting a shoot of the favourite upon any wild 

 kindred stock. The advantages of grafting are many, 

 saying nothing of the facility and success of the ope- 

 ration it induces moderate growth and early fruit- 

 fulness ; instead of waiting a long period of the ado- 

 lescence of a seedling, we have at once the matured 

 head transferred to a young root ; and if an old tree 

 be of an inferior kind, or become decayed through 

 age, it may be lopped, and regrafted with one or 

 several new or superior sorts. 



The practicability of grafting depends on the rea- 



