1876.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
1S7 
bud, which is ready to grow in spring, and though the 
leaves have fallen, you see the scars or marks where 
they were, and just above them the axillary buds. In 
making a cutting we must have a stem and one or more 
buds, we have taken this away from the plant, and the 
first thing it needs is roots, so we set it out in the earth 
where we hope it will make them. The little plant in 
the seed has food provided to help it form roots ; the 
cutting has in its stem and leaves food that would have 
been used to make more leaves, but it now uses it to 
Fig. 4.— ROSE CUTTING. 
make roots. Most cuttings when put into the soil make 
first a whitish bunch at the bottom, sometimes large, as 
in figure 3, and often much smaller ; this is thought to be 
matter gathered there to feed the roots, which will soon 
start near by. This bunch the gardeners call a callus. 
After the roots begin to grow, then the buds on the stem 
of the cutting start, and we have a plant able to take 
care of itself. Several kinds of cuttings are made; 
there are those taken when the plant is not growing, but 
the leaves have fallen and the plant quite at rest. Grape¬ 
vines and currant bushes are grown from cuttings of 
this kind, and the gardeners sometimes treat roses in 
this way. But you will be likely to make cuttings with 
the leaves on. Florists manage their roses in away that 
you cannot, and they make a plant from every bud as in 
figure 3 ; you will need to take longer cuttings, as in 
figure 4, which have several leaves with a bud to each. 
For home-blooming roses, when you can find new shoots 
that have made buds at the place where the leaves join 
the stem, that is the best time to make cuttings ; if the 
cutting has three leaves, cut off the lower one, and put 
the stem into the soil up to the second leaf. Unless the 
soil is very sandy, use pure sand in the pot, putting 
something in the hole to keep it from running out. The 
cuttings are put in, the sand well pressed down and 
kept moist, and while the cuttings must have light, they 
should not be put in the direct sun. You can treat all 
kinds of geraniums, fuchsias, and many others in this 
way ; if you try carnations, you must keep them very 
cool and give them a long time. As soon as any roots 
have grown, the cuttings should then be put into good 
soil. Some cuttings will root well in common earth, but 
those with soft stems are apt to rot, and good clean sand 
is better. There is another way that some of you may 
like better. You want a deep saucer, or soup plate that 
will hold an inch depth of sand ; you then make cuttings 
with one or more buds, from an inch to two inches long, 
and stick them in the damp sand ; if they are so close as 
in figure 5, as to touch each other, all the better. You 
then sprinkle on water from a watering pot until the 
sand is as wet as mud, and set the whole in a window, 
where it will have a plenty of sun. Cuttings of plants 
with soft stems like verbenas, heliotropes, and fuchsias, 
should be put in when very young and tender. Plants root 
very quickly in this way, if you do not forget to keep the 
Fig. 5. —SAUCER WITH CUTTINGS. 
sand wet all the time. If it once dries up, you will have 
to begin over again. At the end of a week you can take 
out a cutting of each kind to see how it is doing ; when 
they show a thread of a root, they must be set out 
in good soil. Some will take root in a week or ten days, 
and others will take two or three weeks. But don’t for¬ 
get to keep the sand very wet all the time. The Doctor. 
Aotiat Sine's Oiats. 
Here is a letter from “ D. O.,” Perry Co., Ohio, which 
says“ Dear Aunt Sue—You gave directions in the 
American Agriculturist about making kites, but didn’t 
tell how to make the tail. Our little boy 
has been trying to get his kites to fly, but 
can’t, and he thinks there must he some 
deficiency in the tail. Nothing would do; 
but I must ask Aunt Sue to enlighten us 
in regard to making a tail for the kite. As _ 
we know nothing about the art of kite- ’j”! 
making, he made his kite according to the 
directions you gave. If you can get time, 
please answer and oblige.”—Now who 
would ever have thought that I should 
become instructress in kite-making and 
kite-flying! Or who would ever have 
thought that any boy who lived in Am¬ 
erica didn’t know how to make a kite- 
tail. Well, “ our little boy ” shall have 
my best instructions on the subject. The 
prettiest tail for a kite is made of paper 
and string. Cut a newspaper into pieces 
about five inches square, and fold each 
piece until you have it about 2% inches 
long by wide. Have a piece of string 
G or 8 yards long, and put one of these 
folded papers into a slip knot, so that they 
will be about an inch apart all the way 
down the string. Figures 1, 2 and 3 may 
give you a better idea than you could 
get from my description. Finish the 
c 
Fig. 1. 
end of the tail off, with a paper tassel, made by cut¬ 
ting a paper into fringe, and rolling it up. Then the con¬ 
struction of such a tail as this is a capital occupation for 
boys who would be otherwise waking the baby, or break¬ 
ing things. Not that “ our little boy ” does these !— 
There is, however, one great drawback to this kind of 
tail; it is so liable to get into “ snarls” ; but if you have 
plenty of field room, where you can lay out the tail nice 
and straight before raising the kite, you will be charmed 
with the effect. The kite-tails most commonly used, and 
which seem to answer the purpose well enough, are made 
from long, narrow (two or three inches wide) strips of 
old rags of any kind, knotted together. From four to ten 
yards are needed, according to the size of the kite and 
the strength of the wind. For a very light tissue-paper 
kite, a tail one inch wide would be in order. 
Aunt Sale’s l*i»zzle-ISox. 
ANAGRAMS. 
1. Stab prelate. 6. Bravo rode. 
2. In pale sun. 7. Rout, famine, Cas. 
3. Pray over Bill. 8. Nay, go gness. 
4. I ran, told it A. 9. Medical pie. 
5. None suit us to a T. 10. Now tear me. K. 
METAGRAM. 
A section of a city take ; 
A change of head will quickly make, 
At first, what warns us time is short; 
Again a number of one sort. 
Behead me now, and I contain 
The key you need ; and when again 
My head you change, I then become 
Something to drink—a wine—not rum. Henry. 
DECAPITATIONS. 
1. Behead an instrument of torture, and leave a tree. 
2. Behead an animal, and leave what it might eat, 
3. Behead an uncomfortable sensation, and leave the 
channel by which it may have come. 
4. Behead what we all have, and leave a number. 
G. II. Y. 
SQUARE WORD. 
1. A juice extracted from various palm trees. 2. A 
certain- kind of drama. 3. To exclude. 4. Delineated. 
5. Woollen threads. Johnny Smith, 
cross WORD. 
My first is in shatter but not in break, 
My next is in biscuit but not in cake, 
My third is in man but not in boy, 
My fourth is in doll but not in toy, 
My fifth is in shower but not in rain, 
My sixth is in riches but not in gain, 
My seventh is in tree but not in bush, 
My eighth is in haul but not in push, 
My ninth is in wine but not in feast, 
My whole is a country in the east. Pauline. 
CURTAILMENTS. 
(Example: He saw the seal dive into the sea.) 
1. His-was such as to make me sure of not re¬ 
ceiving a --. 
2. 1 asked him if he had -—— and he answered-. 
3. Just for-he made me stay at the-. 
4. Ho killed his- by not trying my-. 
5. He had a - and also a - with him. Nip. 
DIAMOND PUZZLE. 
1. The edge of a rim. 2. A cover. 3. An ultimate 
atom. 4. Alterations. 5. One of .the United States. G. 
To throb. 7. A blow. 8. You have all done. 9. Part of 
a state. T. T. C. 
NUMERICAL ENIGMA. 
I am composed of 22 letters : 
My G, 7, 8, 9, is part of the face. 
My 1G, 15, 14, 22, is an ornament. 
My 1G, 17, 18, 5, is an article of clothing. 
My 12, 1, 2, 3, is part of a ship. 
My 19, 11, 21, 13, is a number. 
My 12, 20, 10, 13, is an insect. 
My 4, 10, is a pronoun. 
My whole is a very true proverb. Belle, 
pi. 
(This sentence was selected for its sentiment. If every 
man, woman, and child, who sees it, will translate it, he, 
she, or it, will get a sermon in a nutshell.) 
“ Yhw od ouy hows frova ot. rouy simenee sindate fo 
stedorginy methf” dais a fatiuchie ot het roperem 
Smudginis. ‘‘Od I ton oysterd ym seenmie yb magiuk 
ineth ym deufris ? ” saw het peermor’s blone plyer. 
HIDDEN CAPES. 
1. I love Fanny, dearly. 2. I dislike tobacco ; do throw 
away that cigar. 3. Do not let that wood char, lest we 
smother. 4. Look out Eddie, or you will fall. 5. When 
rye is ripe, it is a pale yellow. G. Stop a moment, mam¬ 
ma, your dress is caught. 7. The trees are shorn of their 
beauty. 8. Those children you spoke of, are well pro¬ 
vided for. Little One. 
POSITIVE AND COMPARATIVE. 
(Example. A pronoun ; mud.— My, mire. 
1. A man’s name ; money. 2. Meat ; a tool. 3. A 
pronoun; a pitcher. 4. A house; the inside. 5. A germ; 
a tree. G. A blow; a dress. Bessie. 
ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN THE MARCH NUMBER. 
Bisected Eastern Cities.—1. Madrid. 2. Warsaw. 3. 
Portsmouth. 4. JJarmcn. 5. Limerick. G. Leyden. 7. Can¬ 
ton. 8. Bagdad. 
Double Acrostic.— M—ississipp—I Maine, Idaho. 
A— uklan —D 
I— ndian —A 
N— ort —H 
E- hr -O 
Pi.—Thrift is better than an annuity. 
Cross Word.—N orthfield. 
Numerical Enigma.—J. Grey, pack my box with five 
dozen quilts. 
Square Word.— II AIIP 
ARIL 
RICE 
PLEA 
No. 448. Prefix Puzzle (.page 105).—1. Estate. 2. Knight. 
3. Harm. 4. Acorn. 5. Vice. 6. Zone. 7. Whole. 8. Chill. 
9. Glance. 10. Jangle. 11. Open. 12. Flakes. 13. Race. 
14. Narrow. 15. Usage. 16 . Shut. 17. Least. 18. Drum. 
19. March. 20. Pink. 21. Yawl. 22. Bear. 23. Tale. 
Thanks, for letters, puzzles, etc., to M. L. G., Lucy and 
Sunie.S. L. P., S. Kipper, Snippy, C. A. N„ Frank H. N., 
A. R. F., Jr., L. J. S„ Grace Terry, M. J. Carter, Norman 
It. S., L. J. S„ Sue K. Sudds, Addie L., Charlie, II*S. Y. 
B. B. W., J. C., Mary A. E., and Mortimer. 
Puzzles should always be accompanied by their answers. 
Those on subscribers’ names are not of sufficient general 
interest for publication. 
Send communications intended for Aunt Sue , to Box 111, 
P. O., Brooklyn , N. Y., and not to 245 Broadway. 
Robbie’s Dream. 
BY LILA V. NORTH. 
All the afternoon the rain poured down, washing over 
the sidewalk, rushing; through the gutters, and driving 
the very beggars, wlio never seem to mind tiie weather, 
into whatever wretched shelter they could find. Robbie 
had a place of shelter too, though not a wretched one. It 
was a large, pleasant room, with a cheerful coal-fire 
burning in the grate, a bright carpet on the floor, and 
pretty pictures on the walls. Robbie’s own little lounge 
was in the corner, and his hobby-horse in another; on 
the wall hung his hook-rack with the many books his 
friends had given him, and under it the little table, at 
which he sat every morning to study. But to-day one 
could hardly see the pretty carpet, it was so strewn with 
books an(l toys. A company of soldiers lay in terrible 
confusion in one part of the room, and near them were 
the lion and the monkey belonging to his menagerie, 
while the elephant and the brown bear had been thrown 
under the sofa, and some of the smaller animals were in 
