PROPAGATION OF PLANTS BY CUTTINGS. 91 



means indispensable to adopt, as sand alone, placed on the 

 boards or flagging, to the depth of 3 inches, will answer 

 the purpose very well ; but when the materials can be 

 procured conveniently, we believe it to be preferable. 

 Some gardeners give preference to particular colors or 

 textures of sand, but I think that these have little or 

 nothing to do with the rooting of cuttings. In our ex- 

 periments, we have tried sands of all colors and of nearly 

 all textures, together with charcoal-dust, brick-dust, cocoa- 

 nut fibre, rotted refuse hops, and many other materials ; 

 cuttings root in all in nearly the same time and with the 

 same success, satisfying us, beyond all doubt, that the 

 material in which the cutting is placed acts merely as a 

 medium to hold the moisture. We use sand because it is 

 a clean and convenient material to work with, and is 

 generally easily attainable. In my earlier experience, I 

 was a victim to the popular notion that it was necessary 

 to use silver sand in the propagation of particular plants, 

 and was for years at much trouble and expense to obtain 

 it. But this even did not save us; we were in those 

 days working at hap-hazard, failing quite as often as suc- 

 ceeding, until further experience taught us what were the 

 causes of failure and the conditions of success. 



With exceptions so few, and those of so little impoi't- 

 ance that it is hardly worth while to allude to them, cut- 

 tings of all kinds root freely from slips taken from the 

 young wood that is, the succulent or un ripened growth 

 that a plant has made. The proper condition of the slip 

 at the time that it is inserted in the sand of the cutting- 

 bench is of great importance, a condition which it is 

 astonishing to believe is so little understood among gar- 

 deners. Somehow the idea has become current that every 

 cutting must be made by cutting just below a joint or 

 just at one. The practice of this system leads undoubt- 

 edly to many cases of failure; not that the mere cutting at 

 or below a joint either assists or hinders the forma- 



