142 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



October, 1907 



quarters. Such handling is liable to delay 

 the laying for weeks, possibly months. Have 

 them in their place of business when they 

 are ready for business and a little before. 



A little glass is good, but those beautiful 

 glass-front hen palaces facing the south are 

 an abomination. I have known one of those 

 glass front houses to have an inside tem- 

 perature of ioo° on a bright but cold winter 

 day. At night, the glass radiates heat so 

 rapidly that it will be about as cold inside 

 as out. Big variations in temperature are 

 bad for the birds. 



The best hen-house window is made of 

 cloth. It admits air and prevents drafts. 

 It also permits the passage of considerable 

 sunlight. Put the cloth on frames hinged at 

 the top so that, when the weather is fair, 

 thev may be opened wide, admitting abund- 

 ance of free air. This wide-open system 

 will prevent the dampness so prevalent 

 in closed houses, so detrimental to the 

 health of the poultry, and destructive to 

 the profits of the poultryman. These 

 cloth-front houses have been tested thor- 

 oughly in Maine and Minnesota, as well 

 as in many other States, and have proved 

 their worth. Sometimes these cloth-front 

 houses are made deeper from front to back 

 than the ordinary hen-house, so that the 

 birds on the roosts are farther from the 

 open front and the roost is provided with 

 a curtain to be dropped for further protec- 

 tion during cold nights. 



Another type of house used to a limited 

 extent in New England, is deep from front 

 to back and low in front, the latter being 

 covered only with wire netting. Such a 

 house, I should think, would be very desir- 

 able in a warmer climate, where there is 

 little snow; but with such driving storms 

 as we sometimes have in winter in our 

 locality, I would prefer to have a cloth front 

 to close when needed. 



The most profitable work that can be 

 done now is to clean and disinfect the whole 

 house thoroughly before putting in the young 

 stock. Burn the old nesting material, and 

 some of the nest boxes may possibly be best 

 consigned to the flames. Whitewash, or 

 spray thoroughly with good disinfectants, 

 and make the whole interior as clean and 

 wholesome as possible. Cover the floor 

 with dry earth, and see to it that the house 

 is in good repair before freezing weather. 

 Clean out the droppings at least once a week. 



New Jersey. F. H. Valentine. 



The young roses are most easily carried through 

 the first winter by means of a coidframe 



Root the cuttings in a propagating box partly filled 

 with sand, any time from June to November 



Starting Garden Roses at Home 

 From Cuttings 



FOR three or four seasons past I have 

 tried to root rose cuttings, but not 

 until last year was I rewarded with any- 

 thing like success. The methods ordinarily 

 given seem to apply to greenhouse conditions, 

 but I was without such conveniences. 



My first attempts were with boxes filled 

 to within three inches of the top with clean 

 sand, and then covered with glass. This, 

 with cuttings made from branches of rather 

 mature wood, was placed on the south porch 

 where it was partially shaded, though only 

 through part of the day. A few of the 

 cuttings calloused, but not one in twenty 

 made roots. After carrying this on for a 

 whole season and getting but few good plants, 

 books and other writings on rose culture and 

 nursery methods were consulted, and from 

 one of these I got the idea of putting the 

 cuttings in a large pot of sand, in the centre of 

 which was sunk a smaller pot with the 

 drainage hole at the bottom stopped with 

 plaster of Paris. The small pot being filled 

 with water keeps the sand evenly moist. 

 This was put on the porch in place of the box. 

 After nearly a year's work, from June to 

 April, I had four plants of Rambler rose, two 

 of Marie Van Houtte and one Meteor, 

 though not less than forty cuttings had been 

 started. In desperation I went to a florist 

 and told him my trouble, and he expressed 

 the opinion that the soil was cold, and the 

 exposed portion of the cuttings too warm, 

 causing growth of top without proper strik- 

 ing of roots, and recommended bottom heat 

 and cooler top air. Then I made a box 

 which was heated by warm water heated by 

 a tiny gas burner. For about two or three 

 weeks this seemed to furnish the needed 

 heat, when one morning an examination 

 showed that extra gas pressure had increased 

 the heat to 120 . The box was cooled down, 

 but a day or two later an examination of 

 some of the cuttings demonstrated that I 

 had "cooked" the cuttings. So with that expe- 

 rience closed another chapter. 



Finally I made the propagating box 

 shown in Fig. 1 from a soap box 12 x 16 in. 

 and four inches deep. The top section cov- 

 ered with glass was about two inches high at 

 the front and four inches at the back. The 



bottom was filled two-thirds full of rather 

 coarse, clean sand. The whole was set on a 

 stand on the north side of the house, so that 

 it received direct sunlight for only a short 

 while in the morning and latter part of the 

 afternoon. By being placed on a stand, the 

 sand is somewhat warmer than if set on the 

 ground. 



Cuttings from wood of various degrees of 

 maturity were tried, and contrary to most 

 of the information I could find on the subject, 

 I found that green-wood cuttings rooted best. 

 The wood from branches on which buds are 

 showing color up to fully open ones seemed 

 to be best for the cuttings, and when taken 

 in that stage of growth seemed to strike roots 

 satisfactorily. The cuttings were made about 

 three to five inches long containing two or 

 three buds. The upper leaf alone was left 

 on, and if that was large, it was abbreviated 

 by removing one or two leaflets. The cut- 

 tings were placed in the sand in a slanting 

 position with only the upper third or fourth 

 exposed. (Fig. 2.) This was done so that the 

 cut ends could obtain as much as possible 

 the benefit of the warmth of the surface soil. 

 In this way cuttings five inches long can 

 readily be so placed that the cut end is not 

 more than one inch below the surface. After 

 the cuttings are in place the sand is well 

 sprinkled with water and pressed down 

 firmly around the cuttings. A little ventila- 

 tion is furnished by raising the cover about 

 one-quarter of an inch except on very moist, 

 rainy days when the opening can be in- 

 creased. The cuttings must not be disturbed 

 until roots have formed which will usually 

 occur in from four to six weeks. The sand 

 must be kept moist enough by occasional 

 sprinkling to keep cuttings from wilting 

 badly, but not soaking wet, and they must 

 never be allowed to become very dry, espe- 

 cially in the early stages of the rooting. 

 With the cover on, however, this is a very 

 simple matter. 



By this method I rooted cuttings any tim2 

 from early June until late in October and 

 even in November, although those put in 

 late in the fall were slow in striking roots, 

 and some did not make much root growth 

 until spring. When carried over in the cold- 

 frame, however, they strike roots readily 

 in the spring. Late in the fall the box with- 

 out the cover on is set with the cuttings that 

 have not made roots into the coidframe and 



A home-made contrivance- 

 removable glass covered top- 

 necessary moisture and light 



-an old box with 

 -will maintain the 



