﻿56 BULLETIN 24, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



the young sprouts later take their origin are rubbed off or injured. 

 Liability to such injury can be largely reduced by tying the cuttings 

 into bundles of any convenient size, which will also facilitate their 

 counting. The tops should all be laid in the same direction, in order 

 to facilitate planting. Although cuttings will sometimes grow when 

 planted top downward, their growth in this position is not thrifty. 



TREATMENT BEFORE PLANTING. 



Cuttings are set out either plain or rooted. Plain cuttings may be 

 set out either fresh or callused. A fresh cutting, however, is not so 

 well equipped to establish itself in a slightly unfavorable new en- 

 vironment as is a young seedling whose roots can at once absorb 

 nourishment. The cutting must first heal over the cut surfaces, 

 which it does by forming a callus. It is then prepared to send out 

 new roots, usually from this callused surface, but often also from 

 points along the stem. During this period of adaptation and root 

 formation suitable moisture conditions are essential. The soil should 

 be well drained, permeable, and moderately warm. Weeds, grass, or 

 brush should be kept down. 



On the more unfavorable sites it is advisable to use callused cut- 

 tings, or even rooted stock. Callused cuttings have the cut surface 

 healed over prior to planting, and are produced by burying bundles of 

 cuttings in moist sand. If they are made in the fall and buried out- 

 doors, the sand should cover them to a depth of about 2 feet to keep 

 them moist and protect them from freezing. The surface soil should 

 be protected with a covering of straw or leaves. Another good method 

 consists of "packing the bundles in boxes of moist sand which are 

 stored in a cool room or cellar not subject to freezing. Stock kept 

 in this way over winter should be in prime condition for early spring 

 planting. If the cuttings are not prepared till spring, they should 

 not be buried so deeply. At this season of the year the formation of 

 the callus can be more quickly induced by selecting a spot with a 

 southern exposure and a mellow, porous, and moist soil. The cut- 

 tings, bundled as before, should be buried with the large end within 

 an inch or two of the surface. After 2 or 3 weeks, provided the 

 ground is kept uniformly moist, the warmth of the soil will stimu- 

 late the healing of the cut surface. Where cuttings are set in nursery 

 rows for the summer this treatment will considerably increase the 

 percentage surviving at the end of the season. In burying the cut- 

 tings the buds must not be damaged. 



On rather dry surface soils or where the young stock must grow 

 rapidly to keep above weeds it is unwise to use any but rooted stock. 

 One-year-old seedlings meet the requirement, but rooted cuttings will 

 also prove valuable and may sometimes 'be superior to seedlings 

 because of greater height. These are merely cuttings that have been 



