aim to keep the
temperature as _steady_ as possible--the damage done to plants is as
often the result of sudden changes in temperature as of too high or too
low a temperature.

If it is easy to overdo in the matter of temperature, it is even more so
in watering. A soil such as described above, when watered, will absorb
the water rapidly, and leave none of it standing upon the surface of the
pots after a few moments. Practice, and practice only, can teach just
when the soil has been sufficiently saturated. It should be watered
until wet clear through, but never until it becomes muddy. And when
watered it should not be watered again until dry--not baked and hard,
but a condition indicated by a whitening of the surface, and the
rapidity with which it will again soak up water, a condition hard to
describe exactly, but at once recognizable after a little practice.
During the dull winter months, it will be sufficient for most plants in
the greenhouse to receive water twice a week, or even less often, but on
the coming of warm spring days, more frequently, until care is needed
daily. There are some old fogy ideas about soft and tepid water, which
may help confuse the beginner: they accomplish nothing more. Recent
experiments, made by one of the State experiment stations, have
confirmed the experience of practical florists, that the temperature of
water used, even to ice water, has almost absolutely no effect--the
reason being that the water applied changes to the temperature of the
soil almost before it can reach the roots of the plant at all. And hard
and soft, spring and cistern water, have likewise been used without
difference in results. The main thing is to attend to your watering
regularly, never letting the plants get dried out or baked.

Not the least important of the "arts" which the worker under glass has
to acquire is that of potting. From the time the cuttings in the sand
bench are rooted, until the plants are ready to go outdoors in the
spring, they have to be potted and repotted. The operation is a very
simple one when once acquired. To begin with the cutting: Take a
two-inch pot (a few of the geranium cuttings may require a 2-1/2 inch
pot), fill it level with the sifted soil and with the forefinger make a
hole large enough to receive the roots of the cutting and half its
length, without bending the roots up. With the thumbs press down the
dirt firmly on either side of the cutting, and give the pot a clean,
sh