PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING 145 



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IN'iluijJS the most interesting part of our labor of love in this beautiful 

 realm is tlie raising of plants from seeds. This, it seems to me, should 

 early ()((U])V Ihe attention of every child in school. What wonderful 

 properties are slt)red in the tiny speck! All it needs is a little warmth 

 and moisture, and behold! there is life. Well do we remember the admir- 

 ation of our childhood days, at the sight of a bottle covered with a 

 })iece of ilannel eloili on which had been lodged some mustard seeds; 

 and, kepi muisl and warm, was in a few days covered with a beautiful 

 coat of green — not a particle of soil near it. Any good friable soil will 

 do for tlower beds, sandy loam })referred; and for starting annuals and 

 v(>o(>t;ibl(> se(Mls, use boxes from two to three inches deep. Firm the 

 isoil well, make the surface level, scatter the seeds thinly on the surface, 

 thou sift just enough soil to cover tliem; water carefully, so as not to 

 wash them together into groups, cover with a piece of window-glass, and 

 in a few days, with even temperature and good seeds, you will have 

 plants. 



Most plants improve by transplanting. People, as a rule, are afraid 

 to transplant, but that is the means by which we get sturdy plants. 



Who is more richly rejiaid for his labor than he who plants a seed or 

 shrub or tree? Who has conduced more to the public welfare? Who has 

 not been refreshed by the sight of well-kept tlower-beds when in a 

 strange city, or waiting for a train, all alone in a strange place? Who 

 can tell how many hearts will be gladdened at the sight of the bank of 

 blossoms you will get from five cents' worth of nasturtium or of sweet pea 

 seeds planted in some out-of-the-way place, covering quickly some un- 

 sightly object and transforming it to a place of beauty? No special ap- 

 prenticeship required for such work, simply the getting at it. 



We shall be compelled to mention but casually the asters, phloxes, 

 verbenas, poppies, hollyhocks, all old stand-bys but indispensable. 



Many of our beautiful tlowers, while produced from seeds, can not be 

 perpetuated by seeds, because of the crossing and changing by contami- 

 nation with their species. So we resort to propagation by other means — 

 •cuttings (or what the ladies call slips), layering, budding, grafting, etc. 

 The most common and more easily jiracticed is by cuttings. According 

 to the nature of the growth of the plant is the condition in which the cut- 

 ting is taken. In what we commonly call our soft-wooded plants, such 

 as geraniums, heliotrope, fuchsias, etc., the cuttings are taken when the 

 plant is full of vigor, and the new growth, full of sap, will not bend double 

 but will snap almost entirely olf. These, placed in clean sand, will root 

 in about two weeks. In hard-wooded plants, as roses and shrubbery, 

 more thoroughly ripened wood is used. Cuttings as usually taken have 

 at least two buds or eyes, from which the growth is obtained and a 

 new plant secured, always a reproduction of the parent plant. An old 

 practice among our father.^ was to allow the cuttings of soft- wooded 

 plants to remain suspended on the plant by the lower edge of the bark, 

 nntil calloused. Not being entirely severed, it would be sustained by 

 the flow of sap through the bark which supported it until the lacerated 

 portion was calloused or partly healed over, taking perhaps a week's 

 time. Then, when placed in sand or soil, roots would soon be emitted 

 from the calloused part. 

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