Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/237

 clay round the place, it keeps the wound moist and from the drying winds. I have had a camelia bush with no less than eleven buds at the same time, and I have a lively recollection of rising one morning to find the Kanaka garden boy in the act of knocking my clay coverings off, under the impression that they were the abodes of some new insect pest. There is a particular way of making this clay, and which I have given elsewhere.

In grafting or budding the great thing is to be as quick as possible and not to allow the air to get to the opened wood for longer than one can help.

Propagating by layers is one of the most simple ways. First scoop away the earth from the plant to the depth of a few inches, then choose your branches from the strongest wood, bend them down, and cut a slit as if you were going to cut the branch off, but only cut about half through, and let it be made at the thickest part (the elbow), have small forks to keep the layers in place and cover the earth well over them, forks and all, to its former level. By and bye the layer will break from the parent stem where the cut was made, or if not, when well rooted it can be separated with the spade. You can put down as many layers as you like round a bush. Camelias and Gardenias can be very successfully propagated in this way, as can also many other varieties of shrubs and trees.



RUNING is an art I might almost say, though as a matter of fact every man who has a garden, or knows a peach from an orange tree, thinks he knows how to prune, and will inform you as verification of it that he prunes his own trees. And you do not doubt him when you have looked at the trees denuded of half their fruit-bearing shoots.

To prune, well one requires to have some knowledge of the subject, to know the fruit-bearing shoots, and when to leave, and when to cut them back. Much of this information comes with experience and observation, and the rest from mixing and conversing with other fruit growers, and reading.

As a rule the orange tree does not begin to bear till it is four or five years old, therefore, it requires no pruning till after then, but all shoots that run out far beyond the rest should be cut off, and directly twigs begin to die they must be cut out at once. The