FALL-MADE CUTTINGS. 1OJ 



gation, but it will be well to discuss it briefly as 

 some of the older growers believed in it on 

 the ground that it was the only way the stock 

 could be maintained in a healthy condition. 

 Their argument was that the violet is a plant 

 that needs a period of rest, and that propa- 

 gating in spring just after the plant had been 

 pushed through winter flowering is contrary to 

 nature's methods of increasing the plants. It is 

 true that the violet makes its principal effort in 

 the way of sending out runners in the fall, and 

 theoretically this woiild be the proper time to 

 propagate, as good wood can then be had in abun- 

 dance. Practically, however, there are many 

 objections to the plan. Adopting it necessitates 

 carrying the young plants through the winter, 

 and, no matter how much care is exercised in 

 watching them, they nearly always suffer either 

 from being kept too cold or too warm, too dry 

 or too moist. In other words, despite every 

 precaution they get stunted or checked so severely 

 that many of them never rally from the shock, 

 consequently do not prove as vigorous as cuttings 

 made in the spring and properly handled. 



Another question to consider, and one that 

 we have found of much importance, is that 

 during their long stand in flats or beds they are 

 apt to become infected with one or more of the 

 several stem and root diseases, and while these 

 may not be plainly evident in the spring, they 



