838 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 25, 
. . V'- 
. 
every greenhouse a warm and a cool end, according to 
the location and form of heating apparatus with which 
the house is equipped. 
FIRING AND PACKING.—The condition of the fire 
is the next consideration, and these frosty mornings it is 
usually found necessary to keep an active fire until 
about nine o'clock in the morning, after which it may 
be checked until the early afternoon, if the day proves 
bright. Then there are flowers to be cut, and possibly 
packed for shipment, if the output is sold at wholesale, 
and this work must be completed just as early as pos¬ 
sible, the roses and carnations being those that were 
cut the night before, and having had several hours in 
water in the cellar to fill them out and put them in good 
condition for shipping, or for home use if the market be 
a retail one. It is a surprising thing to those new to 
the business to find how easy these wet flowers will 
freeze in transit, and to avoid this the baskets or boxes 
in which they arc packed must be thoroughly lined and 
wrapped in many thicknesses of paper, old newspapers 
being especially useful for this purpose. Ihere may 
also be a few plants to be delivered somewhere within 
driving distance, and although the weather is sharp these 
plants have been promised and the customer must not 
be disappointed, and if the establishment cannot yet 
boast of a heated wagon, the plants may be wrapped 
in paper and then laid in a large covered box (one of 
those large square dry-goods cases will answer very 
well), and in the box with the plants is placed a large 
stoneware demijohn, filled with hot water. This prim¬ 
itive heating apparatus will keep that box warm for a 
10-mile drive, unless the weather is very severe indeed, 
and if the box is lined with felt paper it is still more 
frost-proof. 
WATERING.—These various jobs may 
keep us employed until nine o’clock or 
later, and the weather being bright the 
furnace may be checked, and possibly a 
little ventilation given to the plants, keep¬ 
ing in mind the rule that ventilation 
means the introduction of sufficient fresh 
air without any strong direct drafts on 
the plants, and we are therefore careful 
to open the ventilators in such a way that 
the wind does not cut in. Bright days 
have not been too plentiful of late, so this 
one must be taken advantage of to give 
a good syringing to the roses, and a thor¬ 
ough watering to all the plants that need 
it, and the time to do this is in the morn¬ 
ing. At this season there is liable to be 
strong fire heat at night to keep up the 
required temperature, and this means that 
in some portions of a greenhouse there 
will be found dry spots, especially at the 
back of the bench, and the one in charge, 
if observant, will soon note these particular 
places and pay especial attention to them 
in watering. In watering do not water 
the plants indiscriminately, for if they are 
not fairly dry it would be wiser to leave 
some of the doubtful ones for another 
day, instead of giving a needless soaking. 
POTTING SHED WORK. —The 
watering having been completed, there 
will now be time to do some necessary 
potting, for the propagating bed is per¬ 
forming its functions, and we find it does 
not pay to allow the cuttings to stay in the 
sand too long after they have formed 
roots, for not only do they obstruct 
further operations in the propagating line, 
but the young plants take hold of the soil 
better when the roots are not too long. 
Therefore, when we find that rose or car¬ 
nation cuttings have roots half an inch 
long, it is then time to pot them, pressing 
the fine soil firmly into the pots, and 
watering these young plants as soon as 
they are set away, at the same time pro¬ 
tecting them from the sun for a few days 
with some old newspapers. 
THE PROPAGATING BED, as shown 
in Fig. 360, is a very important part of 
the greenhouse during the Winter and 
early Spring, for it is usually necessary to 
put in several successive lots of cuttings 
in order to get up a stock of all the plants 
required, and it is also a very interesting 
part of the work. It is at this season that 
the value of a comfortable and convenient 
workroom or potting shed becomes ap¬ 
parent, such a shed being usually located 
at the north end of the greenhouse, that 
it may shield the latter from the Winter wind, and at 
the same time does not shade the greenhouse from the 
sun. This potting shed, as shown in Fig. 359, has 
plenty of windows on the side, not skylights, for these 
are too hot in Summer and too prone to leak in the 
Winter, and a convenient work bench on which to do 
potting and packing. Then there are the pot bins at 
the back, and beneath them other bins for soil, sand and 
manure, the building being heated from the furnace 
beneath. 
But we are digressing from the day’s operations, for 
A WELL CARED FOR LAMB. Fig. 358. 
we find by three o’clock in the afternoon that the green¬ 
house begins to cool off again, and it is time to close 
the ventilators and to start the fire on again, for expe¬ 
rience has taught us that the pipes should be warmed 
m&M 
■ 
- - 
READY FOR WORK IN A POTTING SHED. Fig. 35D, 
GROWTH OF CUTTINGS IN A GREENHOUSE. Fig. 360. 
all around before sundown, else the temperature will 
drop several degrees lower than it ought to, and it will 
mean some hard firing in the evening to raise the tem¬ 
perature to its normal level. And so it goes on from 
day to day; a certain sameness, and yet some variety 
in the duties of firing, watering, ventilating, making cut¬ 
tings and potting them, pulling weeds and tying unruly 
growths into place, keeping everything clean and orderly, 
and watching the daily expansion of flower buds and 
the daily attempts of insects to get ahead of the grower.. 
It may truly be said that the oldest profession, that of a 
gardener, is not without interest, for it demands varied 
scientific knowledge combined with plain common sense. 
_ W. H. TAPLIN. 
HOW TO PROPAGATE FROM CUTTINGS. 
Nursery Work in Fall and Winter 
CONDITIONS REQUIRED.—It is not every tree or 
bush that can be propagated from cuttings, that is, from 
a practical standpoint, because they do not all strike 
root with equal readiness, and some arc almost impos¬ 
sible to root even in the most skillful hands and under 
the most favorable conditions. Of the tree fruits the 
quince is about the only one that can be readily prop¬ 
agated, except in the case of some varieties of the pear 
in the Southern States. The currant is quite easily 
propagated from cuttings, and the same is true of the 
gooseberry, under certain favorable conditions. The 
grape is propagated in this way almost entirely. The 
first thing to determine is that the wood should be per¬ 
fectly ripened and sound in every particular, and the 
sooner after that time that the scions are removed from 
the trees the better, for there is always danger of 
severely cold weather injuring the vitality of the wood 
and buds when Winter first sets in. Only the new 
growth of the current year should be taken, and that 
which is thrifty. The best scions are usually taken 
from the top or side branches of the tree, and the same 
is true of the bushes. It does not matter how long 
these scions are, provided they are of such 
character as has already been mentioned. 
As soon as they are taken from the trees 
they should be tied in bundles with wil¬ 
lows, not with strings, because the former 
will not rot, and the latter nearly always 
do, or at least become tender after a few 
months under the ground. Each bundle 
should be carefully labeled with the name 
of the variety, so that there will be no 
mistake as to its identity. 
CARE OF CUTTINGS.—There are 
certain requirements that must be ob¬ 
served in taking care of the cuttings, and 
one is that they must never be allowed 
to dry out, and no time should be lost in 
placing them in some damp place and 
where they will be perfectly secure from 
disturbance. It is safe to pack them in 
damp moss, sawdust or leaf mold, espe¬ 
cially if the sawdust has decayed and is 
not subject to fermentation. They may 
thus be placed away in boxes and put in 
a cellar, dampening the whole mass as it 
is packed down. However, I like to have 
scions buried in the ground even better 
than to have them stored in boxes in¬ 
doors, because the temperature of the 
ground rarely changes, and if the soil is 
reasonably moist and kept covered with 
straw or any other litter, it will remain 
so until Spring. In case scions are buried 
out of doors, it would be well to drive 
stakes at the place, so that in case of snow 
falling there would be no difficulty in find¬ 
ing it. If straw or anything of that sort 
is placed over the spot, and then boards 
are laid on top of this to keep it from 
blowing away or becoming disturbed, it 
would be very easy to dig into the ground 
even in very cold weather, and get out 
the scions, as I have often done. 
MAKING THE CUTTINGS. — The 
time to make the scions into cuttings is 
somewhat immaterial, provided the work 
is done in good season, before the time 
for planting in the Spring. During the 
cold weather of midwinter, when one is 
free from much other work, is a very 
good time to take out the scions and make 
the cuttings. They can be taken into a 
shop, or even into a dwelling, and there 
prepared. They should be cut into 10- 
inch lengths and close to a bud at either 
end. The latter is important because of 
the fact that the roots strike out more 
easily near the buds than elsewhere, and 
there should be no dead wood above the 
top bud or buds which make growth 
above ground. In case that wood is left 
above the upper bud it is sure to die back 
very close to it, and this is not desirable. The cuttings 
should then be tied in bundles of about 50, willow twigs 
being used instead of strings, as before mentioned. 
After carefully labeling each bundle, they should again 
be buried in the ground or packed away in boxes until 
ready for use. h. e. van deman. 
