362 ODOROGRAPHIA. 
dung mixed with straw, but not very much dung. The ashes of 
wood and cinder-ashes can be used with advantage. The ground 
should be allowed to lie fallow until the spring, when all weeds 
should be again cleared and the whole ploughed over. 
In May, according to the weather, the young plants can be 
dibbled into their places, in rows north to south, 4 feet apart and 
6 feet between the rows. Some growers plant much closer, hedge 
fashion, but it is a false economy ; the flower-bearing capacity of 
the plant is decreased, absence of light by interweaving of the 
branches stunts the growth and causes young spikes to decay pre- 
maturely ; also, if the rows are less than 5 feet apart, it becomes 
impossible to weed clean between them ; and in harvest still more 
difficult to walk between them to cut the flower and deposit it 
until enough is cut to carry up to the still. 
A stock cannot be obtained from seed, as in this country the 
plant does not mature its seed, and of course foreign seed would 
not produce the right variety. Neither should the roots of old 
plants be divided, as such a process engenders a fungoid disease in 
the root, and such plants die; but cuttings from established plants 
will freely strike between May and October; they should be of 
young growth and taken at the joint with a heel. Young shoots 
strike more readily than woody branches and produce more com- 
pact plants. They can be put 3 or 4 inches apart, snaded from 
the sun, and watered. They can be transplanted the following 
spring to their proper place. Mild, moist weather should be 
selected for putting them out. The process of roughly taking 
cuttings or clippings of branches and striking them thickly planted 
together in rows or trenches, as adopted by some growers, is about 
the worst method of propagation. Plants propagated in this way 
have to be dragged apart, tearing the bark and injuring the delicate 
roots, so inducing the fungoid disease above-mentioned on the 
wounded organs. The effect of this disease is that in July, when 
the plant is making its greatest demand on the root, the youog 
spikes, which are just beginning to show colour, droop and wither. 
Plants presenting these symptoms should be at once rooted out 
and burned, and their places left vacant until the next May. 
After planting, the weeds should be carefully kept under, and, 
if cut down when young, they perish on the spot; but any large 
weeds should be lifted bodily out and placed in a heap on any vacant 
ground to rot or to be burned. As the roots of the lavender often 
