SLIPPING 179 



be found very difficult or even impossible. Thus it 

 would invariably fail with the oak, the olive, the 

 box-tree, and a great many more hard-wood trees. 

 Furthermore, slipping offers far less certainty of 

 success than layering, since the layer remains in 

 communication with the parent stock and is thus 

 supplied with nourishment until it has acquired roots 

 of its own, whereas the slip, all such communication 

 being abruptly cut off, is obliged from the outset to 

 rely on its own resources and pass without help 

 through the difficult period of rootlessness. Among 

 fruit-bearers there are scarcely any except the grape- 

 vine, the currant-bush, the quince-tree, and a few 

 varieties of plum and apple trees, that lend them- 

 selves to this method of propagation. Among the 

 larger trees the willow and the poplar take root with 

 no difficulty whatever when started from the slip. 

 Finally, a great many ornamental species, herba- 

 ceous plants or bushes like the rose, jasmine, and 

 honeysuckle, multiply easily by this method, the 

 usual one adopted with them by the flower-gardener. 

 "Let us go back now to the very simplest case, 

 the one calling for the fewest precautions. A damp 

 piece of ground on the water's edge is to be planted 

 with poplars or willows. Toward the end of winter 

 the forester in charge cuts a sufficient number of 

 vigorous young branches as large around as a stout 

 cane or even a man's fist, or perhaps larger, and 

 from one to four meters long. He removes all the 

 lower twigs, clips the intermediate ones to half their 

 length, and leaves the upper ones intact if the tree 



