982 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



prc^agation, so in multiplying by cuttings, some sorts succeed best when the current year's wood is taken 

 at midsummer j as for example, Laurus sstivalis, benzoin,, and sassafras, Bignonia, Euphorbia, Phlomis, 

 Rosa, Santolina, &c. Cuttings of some of these sorts, made of year-old wood in spring or autumn, re- 

 quire to stand two seasons before they have made sufficient roots to admit of their removal ; by midsum- 

 mer cuttings one year is gained. The same practice may be applied to deciduous sorts ; but the plants 

 produced are not so strong as by cuttings of ripened wood. All cuttings require to be planted in a shady 

 situation, and sandy soil, dry at bottom ; but kept somewhat moist by occasional watering in dry weather ; 

 their lengths are generally made in proportion to the length of the year-old wood, but seldom exceed- 

 ing six or eight inches. The shoots of some sorts, as poplar, willow, honeysuckle, &c., are divided into 

 several cuttings of this length. An inch of the former year's wood is often preserved in autumn-made 

 cuttings ; but this is not essential ; as more important points are, making a smooth horizontal section at 

 a bud, and in planting, pressing the earth very firmly to the lower extremity of the cutting. Midsum- 

 mer cuttings should in almost all cases be covered with hand or bell glasses. The alder, most willows, 

 the Lombardy, and some other poplars, will grow from cuttings or truncheons of several feet long, and 

 of several inches in diameter. " This method is occasionally adopted, when it is requisite to form expe- 

 ditiously some rough plantation, to serve as a hedge or screen along an outward boundary. Cuttings 

 for this purpose may consist of long slender rods of one or two j-ears' growth, or as well of large trun- 

 cheons or stakes from three to six feet in length. Further, the willow, in particular, will increase from 

 large pole-cuttings of from six to ten feet, planted out at once to form either pollard-stems, or be trained 

 into full standards." {Abei-crojnbk.) 



7034. The season for transplanting struck cuttings into nursery lines, are those already mentioned as 

 the most fit for moving deciduous and evergreen trees, originated by other modes. (6983. to 7023.) 



7035. By suckers. A few common trees, and a number of shrubs are propagated by 

 suckers. The timber-trees are the Ailanthus glandulosa, Robinia pseud-acacia, Populus 

 canescens, alba, and tremula, and Ulmus campestris. Of liedge plants, the common sloe 

 and other wild plums, crabs, and pears, are, or may be so propagated. Various 

 shrubs are propagated by suckers. Suckers make better trees than plants raised from 

 cuttings, and also very good hedge plants. To induce a tree to send up suckers, the 

 horizontal roots may be laid bare, notched in different places, and the earth mixed with 

 sand and replaced ; a powerful co-operative would be to cut the tree over by the surface, 

 by which means all the sap would be employed in root-shoots. At the end of one, but 

 sometimes not till the end of the second season, the suckers will be fit to slip off, or to 

 separate by the knife with a part of the parent root attached ; they may then be pruned 

 as required, and planted in nursery lines, 



7036. Grafting, budding, and inarching, are modes applicable to a few hardy trees and 

 shrubs. The common forest trees are the Fraxinus americana, Populus candicans, 

 heterophylla, and laevigata, Pyrus Aria, Quercus exoniensis, and Ulmus campestris and 

 suberosa. These, and the ornamental trees and shrubs so propagated, are worked on 

 stocks of the more hardy species of the same or of the next allied genus ; and, probably, 

 make as durable plants for timber-trees as layers ; by which mode the above enumerated 

 sorts are also propagated. Tlie stocks should be at least one year established, previously 

 either to grafting or inarching : the operation for deciduous sorts is performed in spring 

 at the rise of the sap. (2910.) Evergreens are almost always inarched either in April, or 

 May, or August. Budding is performed in June and July, and is chiefly used in pro- 

 pagating the rose. (6553.) Some inarched sorts require two seasons before the scion can 

 be detached from the parent plant. 



7037. General citlture and management of a jrtnvate nursery. There is nothing ma- 

 terial to be advanced on this head, but what has been already recurred to in this chapter, 

 or in treating of the general management of the kitchen-garden. The first grand point 

 is so to arrange the rotation of crops, that a crop of culinary vegetables shall intervene 

 between every crop of trees, where that crop remains on the same soil two or more years ; 

 and between every two or three crops, where the crop of trees is lifted annually or the 

 second year. The next thing is changing the surface of the soil, as in horticulture 

 (2557.), weeding, stirring the surface, watering, shading, pruning, training, staking, 

 and protecting. Tlie important points of management are to procure the proper quanti- 

 ties of seeds or stools requisite to produce the quantity of trees to be annually furnished ; 

 to proportion the number of plants taken up daily to the number replanted in the nur- 

 sery or forest the same day, and to attend to general order and neatness. 



Chap. IX. 

 Arboricidtural Catalogue. 



7038. In our arboricultural catalogue we mean to enumerate, and shortly describe, the 

 principal timber-trees which may be cultivated with advantage as such, in the climate of 

 Britain, and also the most useful plants for hedges. We shall arrange the whole as 

 resinous, hard-wooded, and soft-wooded trees ; including in each section the hedge 

 plants belonging to it, and in the last, the willows proper for osier-plantations ; the 

 general culture of the trees contained in each of these sections, has been given iji chapters 

 III. IV. VII. and VIII. 



