78 



PRACTICAL FLORICULTURE. 



the nearer the heat of the sand can be kept to 65, and 

 that of the rest of the house to 50, the more perfect the 

 success will be. 



From the time the cuttings are inserted in the sand un- 

 til they are rooted, they should never be allowed to get 

 dry; in fact, our practice is to keep the sand soaked with 



water, the cutting bench 

 being watered copiously 

 every morning, and often, 

 when the atmosphere is 

 dry, again in the evening. 

 Kept thus saturated, there 

 is less chance of the cutting 

 getting wilted, either by 

 heat from the sun's rays, 

 or from fire heat ; for be it 

 remembered that if a cut- 

 ting once gets wilted, its 

 juices are expended, and 

 it becomes in the condition 

 of a hard cutting, in the 

 condition in which, when 

 bent, it will not snap nor 

 break, which we have shown 

 to be the proper state at 

 Fig. 26. ROOT CUTTING. figure 21. To avoid this 



wilting or flagging of the cutting, every means that will 

 suggest itself to the propagator is to be used. Our prac- 

 tice is to shade and give air in the propagating house just 

 as soon in the forenoon as the action of the sun's rays on the 

 glass raises the temperature of the house to 65 or 70. 

 This practice of giving air in a propagating house is, I 

 am aware, not in very common use; many contending 

 that the house should at all times be kept close. We 

 have tried both methods long enough and extensively 

 enough to satisfy us beyond all question, that ventilating 



