This method of layering has been applied with great success to climbing Roses, whose annual shoots are from 3 ft. to 10 ft. in length. When grown on a commercial scale the parent plants are set in beds at a distance of from 4 ft. to 6 ft. 8 in. from each other, according to the variety. In the spring immediately following the plantation the parent plants are pruned down level with the earth, in order to obtain a supply of healthy shoots which will develop themselves during the summer and autumn. When the cold weather sets in these shoots are covered over with straw to protect them from the frost, not that it will kill them, but it may possibly so alter the condition of the woody fibre as to stop its growth and endanger the success of the layering. In the month of April or May, when the frost is no longer to be feared, and the sap has commenced its upward movement, we proceed as follows : We open round the parent stock a trench about 1 ft. 4 in. wide and 10 in. deep, the depth depending on the quality of the soil. A shoot is then bent down to the bottom of the trench, making it describe a somewhat sharp curve.

The shoot must be kept in its proper position by a wooden hooked peg about 8 in. long, and is notched half-way through the wood at the bottom of an eye placed on the under side and on the lowest part of the curve.

The hooked peg is driven into the ground over the middle of the curved shoot, far enough to keep the layer firmly in its place, after which the whole is covered up with mould. This operation is repeated all round the Rose tree, as long, in fact, as there are any shoots to layer. In order to avoid the shoots crossing each other and becoming entangled, the shoot which presents itself most naturally to the operator is the one chosen, and a space of from 2 in. to 3 in. should be left between each of the layers. The layering being finished, the trench is filled up either with the earth of the bed itself, if it be sufficiently light and rich for the purpose, or, what is much better, a compost made of equal parts of sand and well-rotted leaves, or equal parts of sand and old night soil well deodorized. When the hole has been filled up to the level of the surrounding soil, a little hillock of earth is formed round the layers so as to keep in the water with which they are watered. At the point where the shoot issues from the earth a stick is thrust in vertically, against which the shoot is trained by being tied with bast, rush, or willow.

The layers will have become sufficiently rooted by the autumn, if during the summer we give them the attention that all plants require to make them grow luxuriantly. - F. Lachaume, in Garden.