170 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES. 



when practicable, for cuttings made from aerial stems, as 

 they are more prone to collapse than sprouts from the 

 tuber or root crown. 



Layering is often a handy way to multiply many vege- 

 tables with branching stems. Cover the stems with moist 

 earth and they usually root readily. In some cases a short 

 slit with a knife lengthwise of buried stem aids in rooting. 

 A Consideration of Cans. It would not do to ignore 

 the can method of vegetable growing and deny this refuse 

 tinware its place in amateur gardening, for really some 

 very creditable things are done in cans. If one prepares 

 the right kind of soil, with such texture that it will form 

 neither a leach nor a brick, and then strives for correct 

 temperature and moisture conditions and makes drainage 

 holes enough, a plant will grow in a tin can as well as 

 in some more distinguished receptacle. Many housewives 

 grow very creditable tender plants for planting out by 

 using old tin cans and a sunny window shelf. Some de- 

 voted city gardeners make surprising successes on the old- 

 can foundation. In San Jose a few years ago there was 

 a back yard 12 by 25 feet, surrounded by high white- 

 washed fences and sheds, which cast a blinding glare in 

 the eye of the visitor. Gardening enthusiasm and tin cans 

 transformed the scene. Tomato vines ran above the eaves 

 of the shed, being trained to the wall like grapevines. Be- 

 tween the tomato plants were squash vines, from which 

 the laterals and leaves were cut as they grew toward the 

 roof, so that they were little more than a bare stem below 

 the eaves, but had a most luxuriant growth at the eaves 

 and on the roof of the shed and back porch and along the 

 top of fences. Large squashes ripened on the roof and 

 shelves at the eaves and on fence tops. String beans, pep- 

 pers, and mint grew below the running vines. Tomato 

 plants over six feet in height were severely pruned near 

 Cans of all sizes were used ; old, rusty five-gallon cans, 

 breezes, and a little direct but more reflected sunshine, 

 the ground to a bare stalk, giving free circulation to cats, 

 with the bottoms punched full of holes; small cans, one 



