lUANSFLAmma stocks. 



127 



Li order to obtain a vigorous growth. The very removal 

 of the plant lessens the power of the roots to absorb and 

 convey nutriment ; and on this account, if no other, the 

 stem should be reduced by way of regulating the supply 

 and demand. We sometimes see young stocks planted 

 out Without any shortening of the stem ; and the result 

 is, they scarcely make any growth the first season — the 

 roots are barely able to absorb enough to keep them alive. 

 If one half the stem had been cut away, the remaining 

 biids would have received such a supply of food as would 

 have produced a vigorous growth. It is a pretty good 

 rule, therefore, to reduce the stems of seedlings one third 

 to one lialf^ as at B (7, fig. 84 ; but there are exceptions 

 to this. For instance, a stock with a very large and 

 strong root, and a short, stout, close-jointed stem, well 

 matured and furnished with plump, prominent buds, 

 requires very little, if any shortening of the stem ; and 

 again, others are just the reverse, tall, slender, and 

 feeble, having been suffocated in the seed bed. Such as 

 these require to be shortened more than lialf^ perhaps 

 Pwo tJiirds. 



Layers or Cuttings (fig. 85) are in a different situation 

 from seedlings, and require, therefore, different treatment. 

 They have no tap roots, but masses of fibres ; and these 

 fibres, if they are preserved fresh and sound till replanted, 

 need no shortening ; but if destroyed by exposure, they 

 should be cut ofiT, to make way for new ones. The short- 

 ening of the stems depends entirely on the size and con- 

 dition of the roots. If well rooted, and the roots be in 

 good condition, they may be lefl a foot long ; if poorly 

 rooted they should be cut back to six or eight inches. 

 This applies equally to the layers of the quince^ jpa/radise^ 

 Doucain^ plums ^ etc. 



5 th. Planting stocks in the nursery rows where they 

 are to he tnidded, — ^The first consideration which this 



