60 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK I. be propagated ; to effect which, early in the spring, dig about its foot, 

 "''''^i^''^^ and finding such roots as you may with a httle cutting bend upwards, 

 raise them above ground three or four inches, and they will in a short 

 time make shoots, and be fit for transplantation ; or in this work you 

 may quite separate them from the mother roots, and cut them off. By 

 baring likewise the bigger roots discreetly, and hacking them a little, 

 and then covering them with fresh mould, suckers may be raised in 

 abundance ; which drawing competent roots, Avill soon furnish store of 



on ; though all wood of a loose texture or spungy nature, if several years old, will grow 

 very well. The different ways of layering are: 1. By only laying the shoot, whether 

 young or old, and covering it over with fine mould. No other trouble than this slight 

 layering is necessary for the increase of numbers of trees and shrubs. — 2. By twisting the 

 shoots and slightly breaking the bark, numerous trees, which would not so readily take by 

 the former method, will emit roots from the bruised parts ; and, if the work be performed 

 in the autumn, the shoots will commence good plants by the autumn following. — 3. By 

 thrusting an awl through the joint, the young shoots of many trees will sooner emit fibi'es 

 from such wounded part, than if they had been otherwise laid in the ground ; and in the 

 course of the summer months will commence good plants, fit to be taken off and planted 

 out. — 4. Cutting out some small slips of bark, about the joint, will facilitate the shoot's 

 striking root, and cause it the sooner to commence a plant. — 5. Twisting of wire round 

 the shoot, and pricking it in each side with an awl, has been recommended : some consider 

 the twisting as an unnecessary trouble, when the places are pricked with the awl, as the 

 fibres always proceed from the wounded places, and not from the parts surrounded by the 

 wire. — 6. Slit-layering, or that operation generally known among gardeners by the name 

 of Tongue-layering, is the most imiversal, the best, and the safest way of layering trees 

 and plants. It is known to every florist, who layers his carnations this way : and is 

 practised by all gardeners for almost all sorts of trees which are not known to take by the 

 simple method of barely laying the shoots in the ground. It is performed by cutting with 

 the knife half way through the shoot at right angles with it, and then turning the edge of 

 it upwards, in a perpendicular direction, along the middle of the shoot, half an inch, an 

 inch, or more, according to the nature of the stock that is to be layered. The horizontal 

 cut in carnation-layering, is always at a joint, and is for the most part practised by 

 making the cut at a joint or end, where the performance is on trees. The more elegantly 

 to perform this, make the horizontal cut half through ; take out the knife, and insert it 

 below that cut, on the heel of the underwood, taking it off and drawing the edge of the 

 knife up the middle to the above length. By taking the heel of the underwood off, the 

 tongue or bottom of the layer will sit more at ease ; and by being surrounded with mould, 

 Avill be the better disposed to strike root, should the parts by any accident be made to 

 close again. The shoot being cut in this manner, should be next pegged down into the 

 ground, a place being hollowed for the purpose ; then the point of the layer should be 

 brought forward, pointing towards the stem of the plant, which will separate the tongue 



