462 GARDEN MANAGEMENT. 



•way," says Mr. Cuthill, " I have known 50,000 heads forced hy one man in a 

 season. All air is excluded, the vegetable is forced slowly, and of delicious 

 flavour." 



1386. Geraniums. — Those of oiir readers who are admirers of the geranium 

 as a bedding-out or standard plant, will not be sorry to peruse some of our 

 veteran friend Mr. Donald Beaton's experiences in propagating them. ''Late 

 cuttings," he tells us, "are very useful. Now, suppose any one had an early 

 plant of the Imperial Crimson, and were to begin this week to propagate from 

 it, how many plants ought it to yield by October? Recollecting that all 

 geranium-leaves will root from the foot-stalk ; if the bud at the bottom of the 

 foot-stalk is taken with it, any moderate striker might turn every geranium- 

 leaf now in the covmtry into a perfect plant by the natural heat of the season. 

 A great part of my cuttings of the Imperial Crimson were put in this time last 

 year (July, 185S), with little more than the bud to each cutting. The whole 

 number were put in on a flat piece of level ground, in the centre of my 

 kitchen-garden, right full in the sun, and never a thing between them and the 

 sun ; and there they stood till Mr. Henderson bought them ; but they were 

 watered every evening. The middle course between the early June and late 

 September propagation is what suits us all, and there is more in it than many 

 good practicals are aware. 



1387. "By the end of July, on the average of seasons, the growth of most 

 bedding geraniums is just at its prime for cuttings — it is neither too rank, as 

 it will be in another month, nor is it in any way stinty. Cuttings made from 

 spongy sappy late growth will need about double the care in looking after 

 them during the winter, and are only fit for where lots of glass and good 

 gardeners are kept. The effect on rank late cuttings is this : the amateur 

 must keep them more dry in winter than the gardeners, because he has less 

 command of heat and room, and when you come to that, the thick soft wood of 

 the struck cuttings will shi-ink considerably ; in three months the sap-vessels 

 get closed hke drains, into which elm-roots have found their way ; and when 

 the spring sap rises, it gets up as slowly through those choked passages as the 

 snow-water and spring rains find their way down among the elm-roots. The 

 mere effect consequent on this bad wintering, is the length of time it takes to 

 get these plants into a fair bloom after they are planted out in beds. Did 

 you ever observe that some people's beds are in bloom the next week after 

 planting, and never cease from them, while, others hardly ever get a decent 

 truss in less than three weeks, besides having all the old leaves browned with 

 the sun ? But when the sun is at its hottest and most sultry and stifling 

 point, leaves do not brown nothing like it. When the passages up 

 to the leaves have become sunk and shrivelled, the leaf-stalk is then too 

 stiff to bend ; it holds on, the leaf cannot droop away from the sun, 

 and so is scorched to the point of browning ; and few lay it to heart, 

 or seek out and fathom the cause, putting the blame on everything 

 under the sun, but the very thing that caused the vexation, and that 



