Propagation of the Fine. 79 



the open nursery ground so soon as they are prepared for 

 this exposure by hardening, and when the season has so far 

 advanced that the young plants will not receive a check by 

 by the exposure. The ground should have been well pre- 

 pared by thorough plowing, or by trenching and manuring ; 

 the line is stretched, the pots are carried out, and the planter 

 turns them, ejecting the balls, which he sets with a trowel, in 

 the loose earth, and presses it firmly about them. The line is 

 moved a foot or fifteen inches, and another row is set. The 

 plants are well watered once, and, in a day or two, the surface 

 is loosened with the hoe, to overcome the effects of the 

 tramping of the workmen, and then mulched. 



In the fall, these plants are taken up much in the way 

 recommended in the text, taking care to preserve the roots as 

 perfect as possible ; they are sorted, counted, tied in small 

 bundles, and packed away in sand, moss, or damp saw-dust, 

 and put into a cool cellar, until wanted for shipping or plant- 

 ing ; or they may be heeled-in, out of doors, in a dry and 

 sheltered situation, but the risk of loss, with additional labor 

 requisite for the careful performance of this work, renders the 

 cellar storage very preferable. Unfortunately, these little 

 plants are often trimmed very short, for the sake of their 

 wood, and this has been one of the objections to single eye 

 plants, because they can not be set deeply in planting them 

 out in their stations. 



Objections to Single Eye Plants. From some cause there 

 has arisen a great prejudice against plants produced in the 

 way that has just been alluded to. A great deal of nonsense 

 has been uttered, and the process has been denounced as a 

 " steam manufactory of vines ;" the plants are said to have 

 been forced unnaturally, and to have been "propagated to 

 death," etc. Now it is not worth while to occupy space in 

 repeating what every intelligent person, engaged in the culti- 

 vation of plants, should know : that it is no matter how the 



