THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
197 
or 5 degrees higher, but the nearer the heat of the sand 
can be kept to 00 degrees, and that of the rest of the 
house to 00 degrees, the more perfect the success will be. 
Sand is the best medium in which to place cuttings; 
color or texture is of no spe'cial importance. What we 
use is the ordinary sand used by builders; this is laid on 
the hot-bed or bench of the green-house to the depth 
of about three inches, and firmly packed down. When 
“bottom heat” is wanted, the Hue or pipes under the 
bench of the green-house are boarded in, so that the 
heat strikes the bottom of the bench, thus raising the 
temperature in the sand. 
From the time the cuttings are inserted in the sand 
until they are rooted, they should never be allowed to 
get dry; in fact, our practice is to keep the sand soaked 
with water, the cutting bench being watered copiously 
every morning, and often, when the atmosphere is dry, 
again in the evening. Kept thus saturated, there is less 
chance of the cutting getting wilted, either by heat from 
the sun or from fire heat; for if a cutting once gets 
wilted, its juices are expended, and it becomes in the 
condition of a hard cutting, in the condition in which, 
when bent, it will not snap nor break, which has already 
been described. To avoid this wilting or flagging of 
the cutting, every means that will suggest itself to the 
propagator is to be used. Our practice is to shade and 
ventilate in the propagating-house or hot-bed, just ns 
soon in the forenoon as the action of the sun’s rays on 
the glass raises the temperature of the house to 05 de¬ 
grees or 70 degrees. This practice of ventilating the 
propagating-house or hot bed is, we are aware, not in 
very common use; many contending that the place 
where the propagating is done should at all times be 
kept close. We have tried both methods long enough 
and extensively enough to satisfy us beyond all ques¬ 
tion, that ventilating and propagating at a low temper¬ 
ature is capable of producing a larger number of plants 
during the season, than at a high temperature and in a 
close atmosphere. There need be no failures, and it has 
the important advantage of producing a healthy stock, 
which the close or high temperature system would fail 
to do in the case of many plants. We have often heard 
propagators boasting of rooting cuttings in five days. 
We are well aware that this may be done, but we are 
also aware that it is often done in damp and cloudy 
weather at the risk of the whole crop, and it must be 
done at a high temperature, which at all times causes 
the plants to draw up slender, and thus impairs their 
vigor. 
Permitting a moderate circulation of air in the propa¬ 
gating house tends to prevent the germination of that 
spider-web-like substance, which, for want of a better 
term, is known among gardeners as the “ fungus of the 
cutting bench.” Every one who has had any experi¬ 
ence in propagating knows the baneful effects of this; 
how that, in one night, it will often sweep off thousands 
of cuttings that a few hours before were in healthful 
vigor. But this dangerous enemy of the propagator re¬ 
quires, like vegetation of higher grades, conditions 
suitable to its development, which evidently are a calm 
atmosphere and a temperature above 55 or 60 degrees. 
Hence, to avoid this pest, we make every effort by shad¬ 
ing, airing, and regulation of fire heat, to keep the 
atmosphere of the house so that it shall not exceed 60 
degrees. This, of course, is not practicable when the 
outside temperature in the shade is above 60 degrees; 
but the temperature can be reduced considerably by 
dashing water on ths pathways and other parts of the 
house. It is rarely, however, that the outside tempera¬ 
ture ever exceeds 60 degrees in the shade for any length 
of time iu the district of New York before the middle 
of May, and all propagating had better be finished pre¬ 
vious to that time, unless of tropical plants. In the fall 
months, about the middle of September, operations in 
propagating may again begin. 
The temperature is prevented from rising in the 
house iu various ways, some using canvas, or bast¬ 
matting, or painting the glass with lime or whitewash. 
We find the best and most convenient shading to be 
that fo med by flexible screens made of common lath, 
planed and attached together like Venetian blinds, the 
laths being an inch or so apart; these can be quickly 
rolled or unrolled, and give an ever-varying modified 
shade, sufficiently cooling to the house, yet not darken¬ 
ing the cutting enough to impair its vigor. These are 
not unrolled in the morning until the temperature in¬ 
side indicates it to be necessary, and are rolled up in 
the afternoon as soon as the sun ceases to shine on the 
glass, for it is of the utmost importance that the cut¬ 
tings receive as much light as they will bear without 
becoming wilted. The time required by cuttings to 
root varies from eight to twenty days, according to the 
variety, condition of the cutting, and temperature. 
Verbenas, Fuchsias, or Heliotropes, put in in proper 
condition, and kept without ever being allowed to wilt, 
will root, in an average bottom heat of 65 degrees, in 
eight days, while Roses, Pelargoniums, or Petunias 
will take at least double that time under the same 
conditions. 
It is best to pot off the cuttings at once when rooted, 
no matter how small the roots may be; half an inch is 
a much better length for them to be when potted than 
two inches, and the operation is miich quicker performed 
when the roots are short than when long. But the main 
evils of delaying the potting off of cuttings are, that 
when left too long the cuttings grow up weak and 
spindling, the roots become hard, and do not take as 
quickly to the pot. The same care is required in shad¬ 
ing and watering after potting, nearly, as in the cutting 
bench; for no matter how carefully taken up, in the 
operation of potting, the delicate roots get injured, and 
until they begin to emit roots, are nearly as liable to wilt 
as the unrooted cuttings. Cuttings should always be 
placed in small pots, the best size being from two to two 
and a half inches wide and deep; if placed in larger 
pots the soil dries out too slowly, and the tender root, 
embedded too long in a mass of wet soil, rots, and the 
plant dies. Though we generally prefer soil to be un¬ 
sifted in potting large plants, yet for newly potted cut¬ 
tings, it is better to be sifted fine, not only that it is 
more congenial thus to young roots, but also that the 
operation is quicker done with finely-sifted soil. After 
potting, the cuttings are placed on benches covered with 
an inch or so of sand, watered freely with a fine Rose 
watering-pot, and shaded for four or five days; by that 
time they will have begun to root, when no further 
shading is necessary. These methods of propagating by 
cuttings, are such as are now practiced by commercial 
florists, but for amateurs in horticulture, or gardeners 
who have charge of private green-houses, there is usu¬ 
ally no necessity for a regular propagating house, unless 
the requirements for plants are unusually large. 
