July 17. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
2 Of) 
at striking cuttings—and so it would, by saving his 
purse—but from what I have seen through life, I am 
certain that all the ss4fl,slmess on earth is not so power¬ 
ful in teaching how to strike cuttings as a natural turn 
or fancy for the thing,—the only thing in gardening 
which I could not undertake to learn to the stupidest 
clown, if 1 had only time enough to hammer against 
his brains. 
The said Pink-cuttings—for they were not piped— 
were struck in an open part of the kitchen-garden, 
without the smallest preparation for bottom-heat, under 
common hand-glasses, but with a different management 
from the usual run. There was a shallow trench cut 
out across one end of a cabbage plot of ground, a few 
inches wider than the hand-glasses, and four inches 
deep; three inches of this was tilled with the cutting 
compost, and the surface of the cutting-bed, as you : 
may call it, was an inch under the general level of the 1 
ground, instead of above it, as most people would do. [ 
The bottom was clay, and the compost nothing but leaf- 
mould and sand for the bottom, say two inches deep, 
well rammed down; then an inch of half sand and half 
peat, with a little covering of sand on the top, as for 
cutting-pots. This was well watered and beaten down 
the day before the cuttings were put in. I never saw 
Pink cuttings made so short before; there was just the 
smallest possible touch of solid matter left at the bottom, ! 
without regard to joints. The leaves were left un- ! 
touched, and the whole were put in as close as they 
could stand. Whenever the sun was strong from nine 
in the morning to five in the afternoon the hand-glasses 
were shaded with canvass, and kept close ; but there was 
a considerable opening left for air every night, from first 
to last, and very little watering was given all the time; 
but that was owing to the clay bottom, and to the large 
size of the cutting-ground. 
One half the failures with summer cuttings are from 
too much, or too little, water, or from one being obliged 
to water often, owing to the cuttings being, in a pot or 
very small space, liable to get dry too often ; it is to get 
over this difficulty that some people are so fond of 
putting their cuttings in behind walls or hedges. I 
never thought much of that system, but it is useful 
when one has little time to attend to them properly in 
the full sun. 
Now, there is scarcely a plant in a garden of which 
cuttings cannot be struck from this time to the middle 
of September. I mean common plants, as Roses, 
Fuchsias, Geraniums, Pinks, Cloves, Carnations, Dian- 
thuscs of all sorts, Scarlet and other Lychnises, Pen- 
stemons, Hollyhocks, and such like. Also most of the 
common evergreen shrubs, such of them as come from 
cuttings will root without much shade or shelter from 
glasses, and so will Geraniums, and many other soft- j 
wooded plants; but, no doubt, each and all would root j 
sooner by the help of hand-glasses, therefore, when one i 
happens to have a hand-glass, or a few of them by j 
him, there is little else for them to do now, and they had 
better be used than not, and for all the plants in the 
“ Dictionary,” I would not ask a better way, or a better 
bed, than that in which the Pinks did so well. 
But how is this propagation to be done without hand¬ 
glasses? Just as well, if not better than with them, 
f would never buy a hand-glass on purpose for cuttings, 
until I was sure I could strike as many cuttings in one 
year as would pay for the glass. A couple of shillings will 
buy a good many squares of glass about eight inches 
wide, and ten or twelve inches long, and go farther that 
way for striking cuttings than twelve shillings in hand¬ 
glasses. An old tea-chest, or an empty cigar-box, may 
be turned into a “ frame.” A hotbed-frame, I mean, by 
merely knocking out the bottom, and the loose squares ' 
will do to cover the top just as well as a “ garden- 
light,” and be as good as ever when all is done with. 
I have now proved that a box, or frame, which is 
square on the top, is as good, and I think bettor, for 
cuttings than one which slopes like a Cucumber-frame ; 
then a cigar-box, with the bottom out, and one loose 
square of glass lying on the top of it, is the simplest 
thing that I can think of; and I am quite certain that 
any cuttings which will root under a hand-glass, or 
under a bell-glass, will root equally well under a cigar- 
box, or any other box like it. 
There is even a simpler way of growing cuttings than 
this, which I have in present use, and have struck 
many cuttings by it this season. I have adopted the 
same plan when I had scores of idle hand-glasses. It 
is a garden-pot turned upside down, and the bottom of 
it broken out with a hammer, nearly to the rim or side 
of the pot. This does not hurt a pot for future use; 
indeed, for many people, it would be much better to 
have pots without bottoms, except a small ring, just 
enough to catch the ends of a couple or three large 
crocks, then there could be no bad drainage, and the 
best part of the pot would not be taken up with crocks. 
I have broken out the bottoms of more pots, and large 
pots, too, than I could now find standing room for, on 
purpose to secure perfect drainage, and more room for 
the roots of some favourite specimens ; and I know the 
plan answers well, and that common pots do not 
answer half so well. It was from having such pots by 
me, that I took to striking cuttings with bottomless pots ; 
and really, when I come to think of the many good 
plants which I have struck that way, I must acknow¬ 
ledge that this is the nearest touch to a real hotbed of 
all the plans I ever heard of; from this also I first took 
up the notion that perpendicular light is better, or, at 
least, is less hurtful, for cuttings, than that from the 
slope of a hotbed or roof, but a broad stream of light 
is bad for all cuttings, whether it be from a sloping or 
a square top; therefore, if I were breaking up an old 
tea-chest, or any packing-case, to make square frames 
of for cuttings, I would never make them wider than 
ten inches, and I would make them deep enough, so 
that the top of the cuttings stood one foot from the 
glass; three feet would be a tidy length for this kind 
of box. It might have a finger-hole at each end near 
the top, to lift it by, or you might put a hoop across 
the middle, but it does not want to be moved often 
when it is full of cuttings. The squares of glass should 
just fit it across, and no more, then they will do, if 
placed edge to edge ; or you may lap one edge over 
the other, if you think it best; or you might fix them 
all on a lath frame; but I would never fix them for 
myself. I can take up a square, here or there, and look 
down to see how the cuttings are doing, better than by 
taking up the whole frame, and after watering, I leave 
off the two end squares, and thus cause a current to 
pass under the rest of the squares, which is better 
than tilting a frame till the greatest part of the wet is 
dried off. 
Sometimes the wind is apt to blow off one or more 
of these loose squares, but that can be prevented by a 
piece of twine fastened to a nail at one end in the 
middle, drawn over the centre of the squares, and the 
end tied with a loop knot to a nail at the other end. 
So you see there is nothing in the world easier than to 
contrive a substitute for hand-glasses ; indeed, you might 
grow, or hasten on, Cauliflowers with such things, just 
as well as with the best that ever were made, and you 
might call the bottomless pot your patent bell-glass, or 
your patent sun catch, for it will get as hot as any¬ 
thing, and the vapour thus raised from the soft cutting- 
bed will cause the cuttings to root much faster than 
those under a cigar or other box. If I had any very 
rare seeds of a hardy, or half-hardy plant, I would rather 
trust it out-of-doors, under a bell-pot, than into the hands 
of a spruce London propagator. 1 had a score of such 
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