394 



TIIE HOUSEHOLD. 



Tlie Mml System of Slipping Plants—The following interesting 

 article wo find in the Bahyliood Mngazine: A child of five yeai-s can cut off 

 a Blip from a geranium, verbena, heliotrope, carnation, fuchsia, or even a 



rosebush, taking care that the 

 slip is made from the young 

 or green shoot; and in a plate 

 or saucer filled with wet sand 

 it will root Just as quickly and 

 as well as if put in by the 

 hands of a gardener— provided 

 care is taken that the sand in 

 the saucer is kept wet by add- 

 ing a little water to it each day 

 until the slips show the small 

 roots. The slip should be cut 

 in the way shown in the draw- 

 ing, taking it off either between 

 or below the joints. The sau- 

 cer holding the slips should be 

 placed in some sunny window 

 ■whore it is warm enough for a little child. Nearly 

 all kmds of h1ii)8 can be rooted at anytime of the 

 J ear, but some, such as the coleus, salvias, and 

 vancma plants called "warm-blooded," had bet- 

 ter not be slipped until the warm weather comes 

 in Maj 



Tne slips will begin to show the little roots in 

 from two to three weeks after being put in the 

 saucers. They should then bo potted in little 

 pots about two inches deep, which the gardeners 

 call thumb-pots. The slips should be potted in 

 rich, soft mold, which can be procured from any 

 florist. Good garden earth will also do, only it 

 must not be wet and sticky. If it can only be got in a very wet condition, 

 dry stove-ashes may be mixed with it. 



When the slips are to be potted, first fill the little ^flower-pot full of earth, 

 then with the fore-finger make a hole In the center big enough to put the 

 roots in. Gently press the earth 

 all around the roots, making it 

 level and smooth on the top; 

 then with a watering-pot sprinkle 

 slightly the slips, now plants. 

 Every other day they will require 

 watering until they begin to put 

 little white roots to the edge of 

 the pot, which can bo seen by 

 giving the pot a tap on the table, 

 and turning the contents out just 

 like jelly from a glass. After 

 the soil in the little pots gets filled with roots, which will be in four or five 

 weeks from the time the slips were placed in them, it will bo well to trans- 

 plant into pots three or four inches deep. By May the slips that were put 

 to the eaucera to root ia February or March will have made plauts largo 



