68 THE PLANT WORLD 



in a sunny window of the living-house. When they are an inch or two 

 high they should be pricked out and potted in small pots, and should 

 be shifted once if needed. 



Propagating Shrubs. — It is perhaps not generally known, but the 

 ordinary flowering shrubs, such as Hydrangeas, Forsythias, Spiraeas, 

 Weigelias and the like, may be very easily propagated. Cuttings of the 

 ripened wood five or six inches long should be taken in the fall or winter 

 and tied up in bundles with the cut ends all one way. These bundles 

 should be buried in soil in a cellar, the corner of a cold frame or the open 

 ground, with the butts up, and covered with three or four inches of soil 

 to prevent their drying out. In the spring, when the ground has become 

 dry enough to work, a mellow bed should be prepared and the cuttings 

 set in trenches six inches apart and with one bud showing above the 

 surface. Nearly all of them will take root during the summer and will 

 be ready to transplant to their permanent location the following spring. 

 It is said that cuttings may be taken as late as June, but it is better to 

 take them before growth has started. Currants and gooseberries are 

 propagated readily in this manner. 



The Cold Frame. — This is such a valuable adjunct to the vegetable 

 and flower garden, and is withal so easily and cheaply made, that no en- 

 terprising amateur should be without one. The standard size of sash is 

 3 by 6, and is preferably of cypress wood, as this resists the wet and 

 dry and hot and cold conditions to which it is subject better than any 

 other wood. The cost should be about $2.25 per sash, glazed, and they 

 can be procured of any good lumber dealer. The location for the bed 

 should be well drained and, if possible, in a place somewhat sheltered 

 and facing to the south. The frame may be constructed of good sound 

 1-inch lumber, although thicker lumber will of course last longer. This 

 frame should be about 18 inches high at the back and 12 or 14 inches at 

 the front, and should be sunk for several inches in the ground and the 

 earth banked up around the outside nearly to the top. If there is good 

 drainage the soil inside may be somewhat lower than the outside level. 

 It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to say that the soil should be rich and 

 finely pulverized. Most of the garden vegetables maybe advantageously 

 started in the cold frame and thus secure several weeks' growth before it 

 would be possible outside. Radishes, lettuce, tomatoes, cabbage, etc., 

 may be started long before these could be planted out-of-doors, or if one 

 wishes to have early flowers it offers equal facilities. Early pansies may 

 be secured by sowing the seed in August and transplanting to the cold 

 frame when the plants are of convenient size. In the latitude of Wash- 

 ington they will need no protection but the glass, but further north a 

 covering of old carpet or especially-made mats may be necessary. As 

 soon as the sunny days of March come the plants will start, and by early 



