secured when the cuttings are made in the fall and then buried until spring in sand in the cellar. These cuttings are usually six to ten inches long. They are not idle while they rest. The lower end calluses or heals, and the roots form more readily when the cutting is planted in the spring. But if the proper season has passed, take cuttings at any time in winter, plant them in a deep box in the window, and watch. They will need no shading or special care. Grape, currant, gooseberry, willow, and poplar readily take root from the hardwood. Fig. 164 shows a currant cutting. It has only one bud above the ground.
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Fig. 164.—Currant Cutting.
The Graft.—When the cutting is inserted in a plant rather than in the soil, it is a graft; and the graft may grow. In this case the cutting grows fast to the other plant, and the two become one. When the cutting is inserted in a plant, it is no longer called a cutting, but a cion; and the plant in which it is inserted is called the stock. Fruit trees are grafted in order that a certain variety or kind may be perpetuated, as a Baldwin or Ben Davis variety of apple, Seckel or Bartlett pear, Navel or St. Michael orange.
Plants have preferences as to the stocks on which they will grow; but we can find out what their choice is only by making the experiment. The pear grows well on the quince, but the quince does not thrive on the pear. The pear grows on some of the hawthorns, but it is an unwilling subject on the apple. Tomato plants will grow on potato plants and potato plants on tomato plants.
