A common error among amateurs is to reset the whole clump, or to only divide in 
halves. This is not a good practice, to say nothing of the waste of valuable stock. Clumps 
must be divided if good results are to be obtained. A cluster of stems or stalks will 
never do the fine work produced by one large, strong stem. 
Even if a mass is wanted, it would be better to divide small, and then if desired, 
plant close, say a foot apart. This will give better results than a cluster, each leaning 
away from the center. The size of the tuber is not so important as some imagine. Quite 
small tubers will do excellent work. Tubers the size of one's finger make ideal planting 
stock. 
BY CUTTINGS. 
For rapid increase, the cutting process is the proper method. This method is con- 
fined almost exclusively to commercial growers, and many millions are annually grown in 
this way ; some to be sold as green plants, others to be grown through the season in small 
pots and ripened into what is known commercially as pot roots. The European trade deals 
almost exclusively in these two products. In this country, where space is not so valuable, 
these rooted cuttings ar transferred to the open field and treated the same way as planta- 
tions of tubers. In this way, the stock attains a much larger growth than it would if con- 
fined in pots, and in general appearance, resembles the stock grown from tubers, only 
of course, it is not so large and not so well supplied with eyes. 
A number of good things may be said in favor of the cutting process, chief among 
which is, that new and valuable varieties may be had years in advance of what would be 
required to work up a stock by the slower method of propagation by divisions. Then 
again, a great quantity of stock can be grown in a small space. Still there are a number 
of serious objections to this method. But it is not the object of this work to cast reflec- 
tions on any legitimate branch of the industry. The pot roots on the other hand, while 
generally very small, are nevertheless, excellent planting stock, convenient and light for 
cither mail or express, and may be reasonably true to name, and free from mixture, as 
many of them bloom the previous year and thus afford an opportunity of picking out the 
mixtures. 
There appears to be some confusion in the public mind regarding the meaning of 
the term pot plant and pot root. The green plant being often referred to as a pot root. 
This is not proper. A pot root is a dormant tuber of the previous season's growth. A pot 
plant is a rooted cutting of the present season's growth, and is handled commercially in 
a growing condition. 
The work of propagation sheuld begin early in February. The stock to be propa- 
gated from should be the strongest and best of the previous season's growth. Place the 
undivided clumps upon the green house bench or any convenient place where there will 
be a temperature of 65 or 70 degrees and good air and sunlight. Cover the roots almost 
to the crown with light soil or leafmold, manure if needed, can be given later in liquid 
form. In a week or ten days, the eyes will have started growth, and when the first shoots 
are one inch in length, cut them off and throw them away as they never make good 
plants, if indeed they ever root. In removing these shoots, cut about one quarter of an 
inch from the base. This will cause the eye to broaden and a cluster of eyes to form, 
from which an increasing number of shoots will spring. When the next growth has made 
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