PROPAGATION 



Square or rectangular seed-boxes, four incites 

 deep, all the same size, must be prepared with 

 good soil for the starting of seedlings in the 

 spring. In these boxes, cabbage, lettuce, cauli- 

 flower, eggplants, tomatoes, and celery can be 

 started for the vegetable garden, and Salvia, 

 Marigold and other seeds for the flower-garden. 

 When necessary, the plants must be carefully 

 thinned. Some plants require several pickings- 

 otf to make them root more freely. With each 

 succeeding picking off the soil must be made 

 more substantial and nutritive. Seedlings are 

 apt to " damp off '' or be attacked by a fungous 

 growth at the surface of the soil. A thin layer 

 of silver sand sprinkled on the surface will pre- 

 vent this, as fungi are unable to organize min- 

 eral matter into plant-food and the sand will not 

 support them. 



Next in importance to propagation by seed 

 is the multiplication by cuttings. This may be 

 done by taking parts of stems, root or root-stock 

 or leaf. 



Propagation by cutting is ' one of the most 

 intensely practical and useful methods and con- 

 sists of taking a portion of the stem, leaf or root 

 of a living plant and placing it under such favor- 

 able conditions that it will root and form a new 

 plant. By this means the type is preserved and 

 propagation by seed often gives rise to unex- 



153 



