450 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



can be obtained ; a firm base, and good buds near the top, are the chief 

 points to secure. 



We have inserted a number of cuttings annually with great success in the 

 following manner: In any open piece of ground we stretch a line, then with 

 a spade throw out a trench, having the side next the line smooth and 

 straight, like a wall, but not quite perpendicular. This trench is six inches 

 or so deep, and in it we spread an inch or two of rough sand. In this the 

 cuttings are pressed down three or four inches apart, their tops leaning 

 against the miniature wall of soil, not more than two inches of each cutting 

 being above the top. The soil removed in forming the trenches is then 

 filled in and trodden down so firmly that a cutting, if taken hold of, cannot 

 be easily withdrawn. All is finished off level and neatly, a little more sand 

 being strewn along the row on the surface of the soil around the cuttings, 

 and the work is done, only the tips of the cuttings being seen above ground. 

 Few fail to grow, the loss often not exceeding one out of a hundred. The 

 whole work is simple, but it must be done well — that is, the cuttings must 

 be of firm wood, kept fresh, and securely fixed in the earth. 



FLOWER BEDS AND BUDDING PLANTS. 



Sinking Lawn Beds. — L. B. Pierce says a perfectly legitimate method 

 of deceiving the eye may be practiced in making flower beds. By placing 

 them on the outer borders of the lawn and sinking the nearest edge six or 

 more inches below the lawn, the eye beholds only flowers, instead of stems 

 and newly worked soil. In this way long-legged geraniums may be made to 

 ornament, instead, as is generally the case, to detract from the beauty 

 of the lawn. 



To one who purchases each year the bedding plants he uses, this sugges- 

 tion will have less force than with those who prefer to save their geraniums 

 and other plants from year to year. But there are benefits in sinking the 

 edges of any flower bed so that the foliage of the newly set plants just 

 touches the grass. It presents a finished appearance from the start, is less 

 liable to injury from passers by and more readily presents its beauties to the 

 eye. 



A natural and beautiful example of a sunken flower-bed may be seen in 

 any bog where the cowslip flourishes, especially along side of railroads where 

 the grass undisturbed by cattle, shapes itself into tussocks, between which 

 the cowslip — naturally an aquatic plant — flourishes without becoming drawn 

 up. In the spring after March fires have burned away the dead and frozen 

 grass, the cowslip springs up, just filling the little depressions with its 

 rounded outline and bursting into full bloom, becomes one of the most 

 beautiful objects imaginable — golden gems upon a cloth of emerald velvet. 



Time for Sowing Pansies. — Wm. Toole says with regard to the best 

 time to sow pansy seed, that as the pansy under favorable circumstances 

 blooms in from 75 to &0 days from the time the seeds are sown, it will be 

 seen that where summer heat can not be endured, sowing in March would 

 give little time for the plants to flower before hot weather, and only in the 



