v.] 



PROPAGATION. 



141 



bark from the bottom of the slip, and cut the tip of the slip off 

 at the same time, leaving the slip altogether to be about a foot 

 long. The time of the year for taking off slips is about the be- 

 ginning of March ; and if it were a little earlier it might be as 

 well. You then plant them as you would a little tree, but three or 

 four inches deep in the ground, and in a shady place ; a most con- 

 venient place for purposes of this sort would be near the hedge on 

 the south side of the garden. They should be put in a row Or 

 rows about eighteen inches apart, and about a foot apart in the 

 row. In this situation they will make shoots in the summer, and 

 make roots. They should be watered a little at the time of plant- 

 ing, and occasionally a little in the spring and summer, until they 

 have shoots two or three inches long. There are many sorts of 

 apples that will admit of propagation in this way, as quinces also 

 will ; and the common codling apple may be raised in this manner 

 with the gratest facility. In a very dry and hot season, it may 

 not be amiss to lay a little litter upon the ground in which the 

 slips are planted in order to keep it cool. 



203. LAYERS. — You take a limb or branch of a tree in the 

 fall, or early in spring, or at Midsummer, and pull it down in such 

 a way as to cause its top, or small shoots and twigs, to lie upon 

 the ground. Th^n fasten the limb down by a peg or two, so that 

 its own force will not raise it up. Then prune off all the small 

 branches and shoots that stick upright ; and having a parcel of 

 shoots lying horizontally, lay earth upon the whole, all along upon 

 the limb from the point where it begins to touch the ground, and 

 also upon all the bottoms of all the shoots. Then cut the shoots 

 off at the points, leaving only two or three joints or buds beyond 

 the earth. The earth laid on should be good, and the ground 

 should be fresh digged and made very fine and smooth before the 

 branches be laid upon it. The earth laid on should be from six 

 inches to a foot thick. If the limb or mother branch be very stub- 

 born, a little cut on the upper side of it will make it more easy to 

 be held down. The ground should be kept clean from weeds, and 

 as cool as possible in hot weather. Perhaps rocks or stones (not 

 large) are the best and coolest covering. These layers will be 

 ready to take up and plant out as trees after they have been laid a 

 year. In cases where the branches intended to be laid cannot be 

 bent down sufficiently near to the ground without danger of break- 

 ing them off, a box of earth or a pan with notches in the sides to 



