39(S THE COTTAGE GARDENER. [March 27. 
and hot periods, otherwise an inconvenient amount of 
labour will be called forth in watering them. 
Soils somewhat adhesive, or, at least, what gardeners 
term “ sound,” will, therefore, he found eligible for the 
runner system ; but they must be well manured, and 
I dug deep. One other important point deserves atten- 
i tion: the beds on which they are cultivated must be 
| somewhat elevated. They can be grown well without, 
I we are aware; but as the flavour of such late straw- 
! berries is so speedily deteriorated by a rainy autumn, it 
becomes sound policy so to place them, as that they may 
at least soon become dry or mellowed again after such 
inclement periods. Beds, therefore, raised six inches 
: above the ground level, and running north and south, 
! will be found admirably adapted. Such beds we would 
i have about twenty inches in width, and possessing an 
alley of some sixteen inches. The line may be stretched 
down the centre, and plants placed eight inches apart 
down this line; first planting a couple of inches on one 
side the line, and then as much on the other, alternately. 
This will, of course, constitute a double row, and they 
will spread right and left, and by the beginning of 
August will occupy the whole bed. The young runners 
will want watering at times, and must be kept clear of 
weeds; if they should make very rapid progress and 
commence blossoming too early , the best way is to pluck 
off all blossom up to the middle of July; thenceforward 
the remainder will be required for an autumn supply. 
R. Errington. 
TEE FLOWER-GARDEN. 
Cuttings.— It is one consolation for those who have 
not materials for beginning to propagate by cuttings 
till after the middle of March, to know, that from this 
time, to the end of April, is the best in the whole year 
for rooting cuttings of the great majority of flower plants; 
though not the best time, it is tine, for convenience, 
where a large stock of plants is needed. A cutting will 
root now with one-third less heat, or excitement, than 
would be necessary a month ago; and as soon as rooted, 
potted off, and established in the new pot, the season is 
i so far advanced that little more nursing is required. 
The young stock goes at once into close cold pits, or 
somewhere equally good, for hardening off. Now this 
hardening is not at all so easily effected with plants 
of the same kinds that were rooted last February, 
because they must have been so much longer in heat, 
or very much confined for fear of bad weather. If 
gardeners could so manage that all their spring cuttings 
might be made in one day, I am sure nine-tenths of 
them would he satisfied to begin during the last week in 
March. Verbenas, Heliotropes, American Groundsel, 
Anagallises, the small blue and white Lobelias, the 
double Nasturtions, and such like, v r ill root in four or 
five days at this season, if the cutting pots are plunged 
in a bottom heat from 70° to 80°, say in a close hot-bed, 
such as one would like for a cucumber bed; but let us 
say that a week is over after the cuttings are made before 
they can be rooted, and another week is spent in getting 
them established after potting, then, by the end of the 
■ third week, they are in a cool pit. Here, then, is suffi- 
] cient encouragement for young beginners to try their 
: hands at propagation, who may now be thinking that 
the season is too far gone for them to set about this new 
work, and equally so for those who are only half through 
1 with their cuttings, and are afraid that the season is too 
far gone for them to make up their number. As to the 
work itself, small pots are far preferable for cuttings of 
all sorts; and if there is a couple of inches of good root¬ 
ing compost at the top, the rest of the pot may be filled 
with any common soil that is open enough to let off the 
water freely, as cuttings, like seedlings, should not 
remain longer than two or three days in the pot after 
they have made roots. 
Equal quantities of sifted leaf-mould, sifted peat, or 
light loam and sharp sand, will make as good a compost 
as any one can wish for the cuttings to rot in, or for the | 
roots to get into as soon as they are made in a thin layer 
of clean sand at the top. No matter how common a 
plant we propagate, the work is always more sure and 
more tidy if one-fourth of an inch of clean sand he on 
the top, and the pot is quite full to the rim, which is 
i another great point, because you cannot then over-water 
! it; hut without the sand at top the cutting pots must 
! not be quite full, as, if the sandy compost recommended 
| gets once dry, it is not easily watered in a full pot, the j 
I water would run off to the side for some time before the ! 
surface got damp enough to let it pass down. . It is not 
so with sand, if it is ever so dry the least sprinkling of 
water will pass through it at once. 
When you first begin it is best to water the pots 
before the cuttings are planted, to press down the surface 
a little after the watering, but not so much as to make 
the sand quite firm, and then to put in only one row of 
cuttings in a pot, and just round the sides. But gar¬ 
deners are not jiartierdar about all this ; very often they 
fill a pot as close as the cuttings can stand together, and, 
perhaps, not even water the sand till all the cuttings are 
in ; that, however, is no rule for beginners. If a cutting j 
is an inch out of the sand, and less than half an inch 
deep in it, that is as good a way as any. Long cuttings 
are not so sure. 
There is no good rule for knowing when a cutting has 
made roots, the nearest guess is when the cutting begins 
to lengthen, but a great deal depends on the heat of the 
bed. If it is too hot, many cuttings will lengthen or 
look as if they were growing, when it is only the great 
heat which forces them into growth before roots are 
formed; and, on the other hand, if the bottom heat is 
much higher than that of the top, roots may be formed 
long before new leaves come on. Of the two excesses 
this last is the best and safest. 
Again, suppose one has only three or four cuttings 
now of a kind of which a score of plants will be required 
next May, there is no reason to fear coming short of the 
number; the only difference is that they will be later. 
In this case, the cutting pot for the small number must 
be all filled with the best compost, because the few 
cuttings must not be potted when they make roots like 
those of which there are enough at first. Scarce cut¬ 
tings must be kept at work as long as the necessary 
number run short, and as soon as their tops are long 
enough they are made into a fresh lot of cuttings, thus 
doubling the number. By giving the rooted ones a 
little water every day, or every other day, according to 
the weather, they will grow av'ay fast a second time, 
and each will produce two or three tops this time. As 
soon as these are little more than an inch long they are 
fit for the second crop, and so on for successive crops 
until you have enough. This is just the way they 
manage in the nurseries where they require so many 
plants; but we must remember that plants from such 
delicate growths require to be very carefully nursed for the 
first fortnight after they are removed from the hot-bed. 
They are so tender as to require the same management 
as delicate seedlings. 
The very best compost I know of to plant newly-struck 
cuttings in, is this: two parts, or two-thirds leaf-mould, 
not sifted, but rubbed between the hands; and one part, ; 
or one-third sand, and it should not he pressed firm in 
the pot. 
Of every kind that is potted after the middle of April, 
I would put two plants in a pot opposite each other, 
because at planting out time, late struck plants being 
not so strong as autumn or early spring cuttings, I 
w’ould allow two plants for one. Indeed, it is the best 
