is past. Choose a branch which has not flowered. Strip off the lower
leaves. Now where the old and new wood meet is the place for the cut.
Make a cut right into the stem which will be like a tongue. Let this be
about an inch long. Hold this to the ground with the cut side down. Bank
soil over this. At and under the tongue the new shoots will start, and
the new gooseberry bush grow from this. This new plant may be cut off
from the parent. If the twig will not stay bent down in this position,
cut a forked piece of wood which shall act as a pin. Do you picture
this? A branch bent so that not far from the parent plant it is buried
under ground with the rest of the root protruding from the ground.

"A rubber plant may be layered or topped as it is called. Rubber plants
have an ugly habit of going to top, dropping off their lower leaves as
they do this. So they look as if they were trying to develop into huge
bushes, and they become very ugly in so doing. The top looks all right
and many a person wishes that top were off all by itself and nicely
potted.

"This is the way it is topped. A slit is cut in the bark about where you
would like to see roots growing. Then soil and florists' moss is bound
about the wound. These may easily be kept moist. A paper pot could be
put about the soil if one wished. The soil mass should be a ball of
about six inches in diameter. When the new roots appear through the
moss or poking out of the paper pot, cut the stem of the plant below the
pot. And behold you have a little rubber plant just as good as new, I
have told this before to the girls.

"Another method of layering is to cut the parent off down to the ground.
What is left is called the stool. This stool should be covered with
about six inches of earth. Let us suppose this is done in early spring.