ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 509, 



CUTTINGS, to Choose. — The choice of 

 cuttings should be made from the side 

 shoots of trees and plants, and, when pos- 

 sible, from such as incline toward the 

 ground, observing to leave a little wood 

 of a former year or season's growth at- 

 tached to them, as such are found to take 

 root more readily than when they are 

 wholly composed of new wood. The 

 time to take cuttings is as soon as the sap 

 gets into full motion. Before setting them 

 they should be cut across, just below an 

 eye or joint, with as smooth a section as 

 possible, observing not to injure the bud. 

 The superfluous leaves may be removed, 

 but a sufficient number should be left on 

 for the purposes of vegetation. The com- 

 mon practice of removing all or nearly all 

 the leaves of cuttings is injudicious. In 

 some cases leaves alone will strike root. 

 When cuttings are set in pots they should 

 be placed so as to reach to the bottom 

 and touch the sides throughout their whole 

 length, when they will seldom fail to be- 

 come rooted plants. In the case of tubu- 

 lar stalked plants, it is said to be advan- 

 tageous to insert both ends into the soil, 

 each of which will take root, and may 

 then be divided, when two plants will be 

 produced instead of one. An equable 

 temperature, a moist atmosphere, a shady 

 situation, and a moderate supply of water, 

 are the principal requisites to induce 

 speedy rooting. Excess of any of these is 

 prejudicial. When the size of the cuttings 

 admit, it is better to place them under a 

 hand or bell-glass, which will preserve a 

 constant degree of heat, and prevent evap- 

 oration from the surface of the leaves, 

 which is the most common cause of their 

 dying, especially in hot, dry weather. 



CUTTINGS, to Manage. — No cutting 

 requires to be planted deep, though the 

 larger ought to be inserted deeper than 

 such as are small. In the case of ever- 

 greens, the leaves should be kept from 

 touching the soil, otherwise they will damp 

 or rot off; and in the case of tubular 

 stalked plants, which are in general not 

 very easily struck, owing to the water 

 lodging in the tube, and rotting the cut- 

 ting, both ends may be advantageously 

 inserted in the soil, and, besides a greater 

 certainty of success, two plants will be 

 produced. Too much light, air, water, 

 heat, or cold, are alike injurious. To 

 guard against these extremes in tender 



sorts, the means hitherto devised is that of 

 inclosing an atmosphere over the cuttings, 

 by means of a hand or bell glass, accord- 

 ing to their delicacy. This preserves a 

 uniform stillness and moisture of atmos- 

 phere. Immersing the pot in earth has a 

 tendency to preserve a steady, uniform 

 degree of moisture at the roots; and 

 shading or planting the cuttings, if in the 

 open air in a shady situation, prevents the 

 bad effects of excess of light. The only 

 method of regulating the heat is by double 

 or single coverings of glass or mats, or 

 both. A hand-glass placed over a bell- 

 glass will preserve, in a shady situation, a 

 very constant degree of heat. 



What the degree of heat ought to be is 

 decided by the degree of heat requisite for 

 the mother plant. Most species of the 

 erica, dahlia and geranium strike better 

 when supplied with rather more heat than 

 is requsite for the growth of these plants 

 in green-houses. The myrtle tribe and 

 camelias require rather less; and in gen- 

 eral a lesser portion of heat, and of every- 

 thing else proper for plants, in their rooted 

 and growing state, is the safest. 



CUTTINGS, to Protect. — A method 

 practiced in Florida to strike cuttings in 

 well-drained lands, and to preserve young 

 seedlings from insects, is as follows : A 

 square hole is dug in the earth from three 

 to five inches in depth, with almost per- 

 pendicular sides, the ground at the bottom 

 well stirred up, or the bottom earth taken 

 out and good earth put in. The cuttings, 

 or seeds are then planted, the hole is cov- 

 ered with a single piece of glass, and loose 

 earth is scraped around the edges of the 

 glass to render it insect-proof. It then 

 forms a miniature hot-bed and shelter 

 until the young plants are old enough to 

 resist the attacks of insect enemies, when 

 the glass can be removed and the earth 

 drawn around the roots. In wet, cold 

 situations the holes could be made on the 

 summit of little mounds. 



DRAINING. — A cheap mode of drain- 

 ing is, instead of digging the ditch alto- 

 gether with a spade, to use the plow,, 

 taking land 15 or 20 feet wide, and leav- 

 ing the dead furrow where the drain is to 

 be. By plowing several times the dead 

 furrow may be sunk nearly two feet, and 

 from the bottom of this trench, the width 

 and depth of the space, may be thrown 

 out, and a drain made of 3 fence boards 



