It has already been stated that the first effect of cell-growth upon a cutting, is the production of a callus. This callus may form upon any cut surface, or even where the bark has been abraded. It is the first effort of nature to repair an injury by the reproduction of new parts; it is most generally found at the base of the cutting, but under favorable circumstances, it will be seen also at the upper end of the shoot if this has been placed in contact with the earth. Cuttings will sometimes be set up-side down, when we find the callus upon the smaller end, and roots will be emitted from that portion whence we should have expected to see the branches issue. Upon this fact, and to multiply the chances of living, has been based the French method, as it is called, or that of inserting both ends of the cuttings. The common mode, (fig. 1), is to set the cuttings in a slanting direction in the ground, so placed that the upper eye or bud only shall reach the surface. Formerly there was a preference for long cuttings, and these were often made eighteen inches or more in length. The practice with most of our cultivators has been modified in this particular, and they have reduced the length of the slips to six and eight inches, so as to have in grape wood about three or four eyes. Some have gone still further, and use but two, even for out-door planting of the grape, and some have been very successful when using but a single joint. The Germans have advocated longer cuttings, upon the theory that there was a retroaction in the pith of the internodes and in all the buds of the cutting, upon the lower point, enabling it to push roots more strongly from a long than from a short cutting. This theory has for its support the fact, that there is in such a cutting a larger amount of organizable matter to be developed into the new parts to be produced, and certainly, if neglected, short cuttings will be very apt to suffer from drought, but in practice, it is found that the short cutting plants have better roots, which are near the surface, and even those plants, grown from single eyes, are better burnished than long cuttings produced upon the old plan, which placed the roots deep in the soil. [Illustration: Fig. 2.--ONE-EYE CUTTINGS OF THE GRAPE.] There are various methods of preparing the single-eye cuttings, some of which are represented in fig. 2.