Conducted by The Editor ivill be glad to anszoer subscriber's queries pertaiui>ig to individual proble)us connected zvith the 
F. F. Rockwell. garden and grounds. When a direct personal reply is desired please inclose a self-addressed stamped envelope 
January 
T this time of the year one is very like¬ 
ly to think “Oh, there's nothing 1 
can do now. Everything is frozen up tight 
as a drum; you can't even see the garden. 
Let's forget it until warm weather begins 
to come back." 
Have you forgotten last spring? Eo 
\ou not remember how the man who 
liauled manure to your garden was a few 
days late; how, consequently, you were 
not able to get it ]rloughed and prepared 
quite as early as it should have been done : 
how you waited until the last minute to 
order your seeds, and then had to do it in 
more of a hurry than you wished ; how 
some items were substituted because the 
particular thing you wanted was sold out ■, 
how you got the lima beans in too early 
and the early peas too late; how in the 
April rush you finally had to get things in 
any old way, and had too much of some 
things and others were left out altogether, 
for lack of space or of time in which to 
plant them ? 
I have planned and planted my garden 
a good many years. I have never yet had 
the job done to my entire satisfaction. Al- 
wavs something is not attended to quite 
During the winter the apple trees need atten¬ 
tion; sukers must be kept off and tangled, 
rubbing limbs removed 
on time, something left out. But one thing 
I have proved, to my own satisfaction at 
least, beyond a doubt. Every hour sfciit 
ill planning the year's zeork ahead saves 
several hours in earrying out the zvork. 
Each year I do it more carefully, more in 
detail, and farther ahead. I think I am 
working in the right direction. 
Planning the Year’s Work 
r seems to me that the first important 
step to discover and decide is just 
what are the best things for you to do. 
With that once settled, you can surely find 
out hozv to do them. It is the drifting 
along, trying-to-decide-as-you-go policy, 
that fritters away your spare time. 
1 may seem to over-emphasize this point. 
I want to. It deserves all the attention I 
can attract to it. I know, just as surely 
as I know that good beans will s])rout, that 
if you will select a few definite things to 
do this year, either in strengthening your 
garden or im])roving your grounds, next 
January will rind you with more accom¬ 
plished than in two years of general lazy 
"thinking things over." 
Propagation of Plants by Cuttings 
RAPE vines, roses, bedding plants of 
all kinds, evergreens, etc., etc., can 
be successfully rooted with a little care. 
The best time is between the months of 
October and April, preferably the first of 
March, especially for the grape vines. Use 
sand. Any kind of sand will do except 
sand from the seashore. E^se the cuttings 
of the “young wood" ; that is, young shoots 
that are formed by starting the jilants in a 
temperature of from 40 to 60 degrees. In 
the case of roses use short shoots that do 
not show flower-buds. The time when 
they are of the proper degree of hardness 
is determined by the flower-buds on the 
plant just beginning to develop. But with 
bedding' plants generally you cannot get 
the cuttings too soft. 
In making cuttings cut less than an inch 
below the joint, push down to the leaf if 
hard enough—if too soft use a thin knife 
to mark out the sand, so as not to injure 
the cutting. W'ater with a fine spray, and 
remember that the whole “secret" of suc¬ 
cessful propagation is “temperature." 
Keep it low, 75 degrees, the highest, un¬ 
less for grape vines. These will bear ten 
degrees higher. Cuttings from old wood 
need less attention, but success is less uni¬ 
form and plants are not as good. 
The “saucer system" is as good as any. 
Use sand in a half liquid state, place your 
cuttings close together and never allow 
them to dry out. Place your saucers in a 
window “entirely exposed to the sun and 
never shaded." Keep your sand in “con¬ 
dition of mud" until your cuttings are 
rooted, which will be in ten to twenty days. 
Planning the Garden 
ITHOUT doubt the most important 
of the various items suggested is 
planning the garden. If you were careful 
enough to make notes on last year's gar¬ 
den, get them out, and your work is easy. 
Otherwise you will have to trust to mem¬ 
ory and do the best you can. Did you 
have too many string beans? Too few 
transplanted early beets? Go over the list, 
vegetable by vegetable, and decide on the 
quantities you want. 
Then go carefully, sticking close to the 
The same tree shown in the opposite picture 
after it has been properly pruned and 
cut out to an open head 
(50) 
