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CULTIVATION AND ANALYSIS OF PLANTS. 
If it is preferred to use home-raised seed, always select from the best-shaped and prettiest- 
marked flowers, designating them while yet in bloom by a system of letters or other 
marks, which will indicate their character and color, written upon proper labels. 
22. Accustom plants to plenty of air before permanently removing them out of doors; 
or, when taken out, temporarily protect them from cold spells by frames or otherwise. 
28. Do not pull up slips or cuttings to ascertain if they have rooted; this fact may be 
learned without prejudice to the rooting process, by probing at their sides; and, ordinarily, 
by noticing the character of the leaves — vigorous or otherwise — they shoot upward. 
24. Do not paint the receptacles or surroundings of plants a green color, as it makes 
the foliage look pale by contrast; and, being themselves green, any other color whatever 
will produce a better effect; drab, lemon, slate or white forms a good contrast. 
25. Before using tobacco-water to destroy insects on plants, ascertain its strength by 
experiment on a single leaf; if too strong it will discolor the leaves and hurt the plant. 
26. Put small plants in small pots, transplanting to larger ones as they increase in 
size; too much room gives too much moisture, and thereby retards the healthy action of 
the rootlets, which naturally seek the outside of the ball of earth to get air. 
2%. Turn window plants around to the light once or twice each day; otherwise they 
will grow one-sided. 
28. Utilize tulip-beds and the like, after the plants have finished flowering for the 
season, by sowing therein the seeds of annuals, or transplanting thither some bedding-out 
plants, as Verbenas and others. 
29. On the approach of a frosty night, prolong the freshness of window plants by 
drawing them away from the window, or interposing some shield between them and it. 
30. To protect outdoor plants and lengthen their period of blooming, on the approach 
of frost use heavy coverings, as old carpets, quilts, or good, stout wrapping papers. 
31. Use common clay pots for immediate contact with plants; if the glazed kinds are 
desired for ornamental purposes, they should be procured large enough to admit placing 
the common kinds within them. 
32. Wash salt-water sand free of salt before using it around plants. 
33. Keep plant soil as nearly level as possible, to insure uniformity in watering and 
in applying liquid manure; the practice of piling up the soil around the stems is both 
injurious and unsightly in house plants. 
34. If plants need support, set the stakes firm in the soil, burning the ends slightly 
where there is danger of sprouting. 
35. To ripen the wood of plants, place them, after the season of flowering, on beds 
of coal ashes, as a protection against worms. 
36. In taking up plants in the fall, cut around the plant so as to mark out a ball a 
little smaller than the intended receptacle. This should be done with a sharp knife or 
spade, without reference to the rootlets that may be cut away. Thus circumscribed, it 
should be allowed to remain a week or ten days before removing, keeping the ball wet 
meantime, and be then transferred on something broad enough to sustain the whole ball. 
37. Do not take up plants from the open ground too late in the fall for winter grow- 
ing; it is better to sacrifice two or three weeks of their beauty in their old location outside 
than to have miserable looking plants half the winter indoors. 
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