54 



PROPAGATION AND 



[chap. 



not to hury the heart of the plant ; and to take care that the earth 

 be well pressed about the point of the root of the plant. To press 

 the earth very closely about the stem of the plant is of little use, 

 if you leave the point of the root loose. I beg this may be borne 

 in mind ; for the growth, and even the life, of the plant, depend on 

 great care as to this particular. — See Cabbage y paragraph 130, for 

 a minute description of the act of planting. 



103. As to propagation by cuttings, slips, layers, and offsets, it 

 will be spoken of under the names of the several plants usually pro- 

 pagated in any of those ways. Cuttings are pieces cut off from 

 branches of trees and plants. Slips are branches pulled off, and 

 slipped down at a joint. Layers are branches left on the pi ant 

 or tree, and bent down to the ground, and fastened, with earth laid 

 upon the part between the plant and the top of the branch. Off- 

 sets are parts of the root and plant separated from the main root. 



CULTIVATION. 



104. Here, as in the foregoing parts of this Chapter, I propose 

 to speak only of what is of ^e??er«/ application, in order to save the 

 room that would be necessary to repeat instructions for cultivation 

 under the names of the several plants. 



105. The ground being good, and the sowing or planting hav- 

 ing been properly performed, the next thing is the after-manage- 

 ment, which is usually called the cultivation. 



106. If the subject be iiomseed, the first thing is to see that the 

 plants stand at a proper distance from each other ; because, if left 

 too close, they cannot come to good. Let them also be thinned 

 early ; for, even while in seed-leaf, they injure each other. 

 Carrots, parsnips, lettuces, everything, ought to be thinned in the 

 seed-leaf. 



107. Hoe or weed immediately : and, let me observe here, once 

 for all, that weeds never ought to be suffered to get to any size 

 either in field or garden, and especially in the latter. 



108. But, besides the act of killing weeds, cultivation means 

 moving the earth between the plants while growing. This assists 

 them in their growth : it feeds them : it raises food for their roots 

 to live upon. A mere ^«^-hoeing does nothing but keep down the 

 weeds. The hoeing, when the plants' are become stout, should be 

 deep ; and, in general, with a hoe that has spanes^ instead of a 



