CONDUCTED BY F. F. ROCKWELL 
Author of Home Vegetable Gardening and Gardening 
Indoors and Under Glass 
March 
HESE are the days, when you feel 
the sun for the first time, that you 
ought to be thinking about putting down 
tomatoes, peppers and egg-plants. Hot¬ 
bed or no, these ought to be in the ground 
by the 15th. 
March is also the time for looking over 
your equipment and putting things in 
order generally. 
Tools 
Examine your implements for worn and 
broken parts, with an eye to replacements. 
One of the things you ought to have in 
your tool-shed is an emery-wheel, or a 
small grindstone, which has countless 
uses. 
For mellow soil, such as that where 
you had a garden last year, the flat-tined 
spading fork is probably better than the 
spade; easier to use, and will break the 
lumps beter. Besides these, your outfit 
should include, if it is complete, both a 
large, bladed, sharp hoe and a broad- 
tined fork. There is use for these all 
through the season, but you will need 
them after spading for forking the soil 
before you can get it into condition to 
use the iron rake, which must be em¬ 
ployed to give the proper finishing to the 
seed-bed. 
In cultivating, there is no use in trying 
to get on without a wheel-hoe; time is 
too valuable and backaches too uncom¬ 
fortable. If you have a wheel-hoe al¬ 
ready, this year get an attachment or 
two, as many of them are exceedingly 
useful. If you are going to get a wheel- 
hoe, get a combination wheel-hoe and 
seed drill. This will cost more than the 
cheaper sort, but, as with care, it will last 
practically a lifetime, it is well worth the 
difference. And there are two or three 
Cuttings are made about two inches long and the lower 
leaves and scales removed 
other cultivating tools, which are not ab¬ 
solutely necessary, but are quite inex¬ 
pensive, and which will give you, the 
user, a great deal of satisfaction. Among 
Strips of wood or “bands” used as temporary con¬ 
tainers in propagating early potatoes 
these are the small, narrow-bladed, or 
onion, hoe, and the scuffle or slide hoe, to 
use for short jobs or where the tops of 
vegetables have grown too large to permit 
the use of the wheel-hoe. 
And, of course, you must not omit vour 
friends, the bugs, and the little attention 
you will give them will be greatly appre¬ 
ciated — by the vegetables. Time was, 
and not so long ago, when it was a con¬ 
siderable nuisance to keep provided with 
all the materials with which to make the 
sticky, smelly messes required to combat 
successfully the multifarious enemy. The 
so-called exterminators come now in eco¬ 
nomical packages ready to use, and if 
directions are carefully followed they are 
very efficient. 
Most of these materials are applied in 
the form of sprays, and a good com¬ 
pressed air or knapsack sprayer is abso¬ 
lutely essential in the care of a garden 
of any considerable size. In addition to 
this, it is convenient to have a small 
powder gun for the application of to¬ 
bacco dust, hellebore, and so forth. 
Propagating by Cuttings 
The longer and warmer days are start¬ 
ing all the plants in the house and green¬ 
house into more active and luxuriant 
growth. The new wood forming as a 
result of this more active growth is ideal 
material for making cuttings. Until the 
new growth has become a little hard or 
ripe it is too soft to make good cuttings. 
The way to do to determine when the 
proper degree of hardness has been 
reached is to apply the “snapping test,"— 
that is, bend the shoot between your 
fingers, and if it snaps off, the pieces 
merely hanging together by a shred of 
bark, it is in the proper condition ; if it 
bends or doubles up without breaking, 
it is either too old and hard or too young 
and soft. The cuttings are made two 
inches or so long, cut off clean, and the 
lower leaves and leaf scales removed. If 
the leaves are at all large or succulent, it 
is better to cut these back a third to a 
half. After being prepared, the cuttings 
should be kept where they will not wilt 
until they can be put into the sand or a 
puddle of sand and water. In the former 
case, ordinary clean, sharp builders’ sand, 
medium coarse, is put into a small box or 
fiat, three inches deep, made moderately 
firm with a brick or piece of board and 
thoroughly wet. Into this the cuttings 
are inserted to about half their length, 
care being taken to press the sand firmly 
about the stem and bottoms. Where only 
a few cuttings are to be made, what is 
termed the “saucer system" can be used. 
It is very simple and effective. Fill a 
glazed dish or saucer, some two inches 
deep, two-thirds or so full of medium 
coarse sand ; the cuttings are then placed 
close together in this; the sand is kept 
(Continued on page 229) 
When the new roots are one-half inch long the cut¬ 
tings should be potted 
(196) 
