Book IV. SOWING, PLANTING, AND WATERING. 401 



out of thirteen grew. " The art is, to place them to touch the bottom of the pot ; they 

 are then to be plunged in a bark or hot-bed, and kept moist." 



2068. The management of cuttings after they are planted, depends on the general prin- 

 ciple, that where life is weak, all excesses of exterior agency must have a tendency to 

 render it extinct. No cutting requires to be planted deep, though such as are large 

 (i) ought to be inserted deeper than such as are small (f, h). In the case of ever- 

 greens, the leaves should be kept from touching the soil \h) otherwise they will damp 

 or rot off; and in the case of tubular-stalked plants, which are in general not very 

 easily struck, owing to the water lodging in the tube, and rotting the cutting, both ends 

 (/) may in some cases (as in common honeysuckle,) be advantageously inserted in the 

 soil, and besides a greater certainty of success, two plants will be produced. Too much 

 light, air, water, heat, or cold are alike injurious. To guard against these extremes in 

 tender sorts, the means hitherto devised is that of enclosing an atmosphere over the cut- 

 tings, by means of a hand or bell glass, according to their delicacy. This preserves a 

 uniform stillness and moisture of atmosphere. Immersing the pot in earth (if the cut- 

 tings are in pots) has a tendency to preserve a steady uniform degree of moisture at the 

 roots ; and shading, or planting the cuttings, if in the open air, in a shady situation, 

 prevents the bad effects of excess of light. The only method of regulating the heat is 

 by double or single coverings of glass or mats, or both. A hand-glass placed over a 

 bell-glass will preserve, in a shady situation, a very constant degree of heat. What the 

 degree of heat ought to be, is generally decided by the degree of heat requisite for the 

 mother plant. Whatever degree of heat is natural to the mother plant when in a grow- 

 ing state will, in general, be most favorable to the growth of the cuttings. There are, 

 however, some variations, amounting nearly, but not quite, to exceptions. Most species 

 of the erica, dahlia, and geranium strike better when supplied with rather more heat 

 than is requisite for the growth of these plants in green-houses. The myrtle tribe and 

 camellias require rather less > and in general it may be observed, that to give a lesser 

 portion of heat, and of every thing else proper for plants in their rooted and growing 

 state, is the safest conduct in respect to cuttings of ligneous plants. Cuttings of deci- 

 duous hardy trees taken off in autumn should not, of course, be put into heat till spring, 

 but should be kept dormant, like the mother tree. Cuttings of succulents like geraniums 

 will do well both with ordinary and extraordinary heat. 



2069. Piping is a mode of jrropagation by cuttings, and is adopted with herbaceous plants 

 having jointed tubular stems, as the dianthus tribe ; and several of the grasses, and tree 

 arundos, might be propagated in this manner. When the shoot has nearly done growing, 

 which generally happens after the blossom has expanded, its extremity is to be separated at a 

 part of the stem where it is nearly, or at least somewhat indurated or ripened. This se- 

 paration is effected by holding the root end between the finger and thumb of one hand, 

 below a pair of leaves, and with the other, pulling the top part above the pair of leaves, 

 so as to separate it from the root part of the stem at the socket formed by the axillae of 

 the leaves, leaving the stem to remain with a tubular or pipe-looking termination. These 

 pipings, or separated parts (&), are inserted without any further preparation in finely 

 sifted earth, to the depth of the first joint or pipe, gently firmed with a small dibber, 

 watered, a hand-glass placed over them, and their future management regulated on the 

 same general principles as that of cuttings. 



Sect. III. Operations of Rearing and Culture. 



!2070. Operations of rearing and cultivation are various, and some of them of the sim- 

 plest kind, as stirring the soil, cutting, sawing, weeding, &c. have been already consi- 

 dered as garden-labors on the soil and on plants (1862. & 1882.) ; we here, therefore, 

 confine ourselves to the more complex processes of sowing, planting, watering, trans- 

 planting, pruning, thinning, training, and blanching. 



Subsect. 1. Sowing, Planting, and Watering. 



2071. Sowing is the first operation of rearing. Where seeds are deposited singly, as 

 in rows of beans or large nuts, they are said to be planted ; where dropt in numbers to- 



Igether, to be sown. The operation of sowing is either performed in drills, patches, or 

 broad-cast. Drills are small excavations formed with the draw-hoe, generally in straight 

 lines parallel to each other, and in depth and distance apart varying according to the 

 size of the seeds and future plants. In these drills, the seeds are strewed from the hand 

 of the operator, who, taking a small quantity in the palm of his hand and fingers, re- 

 gulates its emission by the thumb. Some seeds are very thinly sown, as the pea and 

 spinage ; others thick, as the cress and small salading. For sowing by bedding-in, see 

 Bedding-in planting (2091.), and Cuffing. (1875.) 



2072. Patches are small circular excavations made with the trowel ; in these, seeds 

 are either sown or planted, thicker or thinner, and covered more or less, according to 



D d 



