230 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



but unless carefully selected and manipulated, they 

 are not so clean and handsome as plants raised from 

 eyes or cuttings. 



Eyes. — These and cuttings make the best plants, 

 as the wood from which they are propagated is 

 sound and well-ripened, and for this reason they are 

 the two modes generally practised by private 

 growers and the trade. 



The wood should be taken from well-ripened trees 

 under glass during the time they are at rest, and 

 laid in under a sheltered wall, where they will be 

 safe from frost. If the plants are to be grown from 

 single eyes, all the preliminaries will be precisely 

 the same as for young Yines, including bottom heat, 

 pots, and soil. The month of February is early 

 enough to put in the eyes, as growth made by plants 

 propagated before that time is liable to be soft and 

 weak from want of light and solar heat. Having 

 prepared a sufficient number of 60-sized pots, select 

 plump eyes from short- jointed, fruitful pieces of 

 wood. Cut them half an inch above and below the 

 bud, make a hole in the centre of each pot large 

 enough to hold a Walnut, fill it up with silver sand, 

 and press in the bud. Give a little water to settle the 

 sand, and place the pots in an intermediate pit for a 

 fortnight or three weeks. By the end of that time 

 have the bottom heat in the propagating pit standing 

 at about 80° or 85° ; plunge to the rims in sand or 

 cocoa-nut fibre, and give the soil a little water 

 to moisten it through, but carefully avoid getting 

 the soil or plunging material what gardeners would 

 call wet, not only at the outset, but during the 

 whole of the time the young plants are kept in a 

 close atmosphere. Let the temperature of the air 

 range from 60° to 65° at first, not more, otherwise 

 the buds will get in advance of the roots, and 

 failure will follow ; shelter from bright sunshine, and 

 dew the tops of the pots over with a fine syringe when 

 moisture is needful. "When the roots have reached 

 the sides of the pots, shift into others a size or two 

 larger, and replunge until they again reach the sides, 

 then gradually, and by degrees, raise them out of the 

 plunging material altogether. From this time keep 

 the young plants near the glass, where they can have 

 more light, and as much air as will prevent them 

 from making weakly, long- jointed growths ; gradually 

 discontinue shading unless it be for an hour or two 

 on bright days, and close with sun-heat and good 

 syringing in time for the air temperature to touch 

 80°. When the young plants reach this stage, their 

 treatment will in a great measure be governed by 

 the purpose for which they are ultimately intended, 

 and as they are not so well adapted for immediate 

 planting out as for pot-cuJture, their future man- 

 agement will be taken up when plants raised from 

 cuttings reach a corresponding stage. 



Cuttings. — The shoots for these should be taken 

 off the trees with a piece of the two-year-old wood 

 attached, to feed and protect the part that will 

 eventually form the base of the cutting during the 

 time they are laid in by the heels in the ground. If 

 cuttings from forced trees cannot be obtained, then 

 straight, short- jointed, well- 

 ripened shoots, from six to 

 twelve inches in length, 

 should be taken from the 

 best fruit-bearing branches 

 on open walls and laid in 

 before the terminal buds, 

 which should be firm and 

 plump, are injured by severe 

 frost. The pots for cuttings 

 may be larger than those 

 recommended for eyes, say 

 three to four inches in dia- 

 meter ; let them be clean, 

 well crocked, and firmly 

 filled with sandy loam ; 

 plunge them up to the rims 

 in the bed, and proceed to 

 form the cuttings by making 

 a clean cut with a sharp 

 knife at the union with the 

 two-year-old wood, as in 

 Fig. 2. Remove all the 

 wood - buds that would 

 otherwise throw up suckers 

 from beneath the surface of 

 the soil, and insert one cut- 

 ting in the centre of each 

 pot, using a little silver sand 

 in the operation. Give a 

 little water to settle the cut- 

 tings fairly in the sand, and 

 let the top and bottom heats 

 be precisely the same as for 

 eyes. Carefully avoid get- 

 ting the soil in the pots, or 

 the plunging material, more 

 than moderately moist, other- 

 wise the cuttings may rot at 

 the base ; but keep the termi- 

 nal points fresh by lightly 



dewing them over with the syringe, and shade from 

 bright sunshine. As growth proceeds, increase the 

 air and reduce the shading, but do not dispense with 

 it altogether. In the meantime prepare a set of clean 

 six-inch pots, by placing two inches of crocks in the 

 bottoms, and mix up the compost for the first shift. 

 This should not, however, be performed until the 

 first set of pots are well filled but not matted with 

 roots. In order to secure a firm, woody growth, 



2.— Fig Cutting. 



