forty-five degrees occasionally will not do injury, and even several degrees lower will not prove fatal, but if frequently reached the plants will be checked and seem to stand still. Plants in the dormant, or semi-dormant condition are not so easily injured by low temperature as those in full growth; also plants which are quite dry will stand much more cold than those in moist soil.

The proper condition of temperature is the most difficult thing to regulate and maintain in growing plants in the house. There is, however, at least one room in almost every house where the night temperature does not often go below forty-five or fifty degrees, and if necessary all plants may be collected into one room during very cold weather. Another precaution which will often save them is to move them away from the windows; put sheets of newspaper inside the panes, not, however, touching the glass, as a "dead air space" must be left between. Where there is danger of freezing, a kerosene lamp or stove left burning in the room overnight will save them. Never, when the temperature outside is below freezing, should plants be left where leaves or blossoms may touch the glass.

As with the problem of light, so with that of temperature—the specially designed place for plants, no matter how small or simple a little nook it may be, offers greater facility for furnishing the proper conditions. But it is, of course, not imperative, and as I have said, there is probably not one home in twenty where a number of sorts of plants cannot be safely carried through the winter.

MOISTURE

It would seem, at first thought, that the proper condition of moisture could be furnished as easily in the house as anywhere. And so it can be as far as applying water to the soil is concerned; but the air in most dwellings in winter is terribly deficient in moisture. The fact that a room is so dry that plants cannot live in it should sound a warning to us who practically live there for days at a time, but it does not, and we continue to contract all sorts of nose and throat troubles, to say nothing of more serious diseases. No room too dry for plants to live in is fit for people to live in. Hot-air and steam heating systems especially, produce an over-dry condition of the atmosphere. This can be overcome to a great or complete extent by thorough ventilation and by keeping water constantly where it can evaporate; over radiators, etc. This should be done for the sake of your own health, if not for that of the plant.

Further information as to watering and ventilation will be found in Chapter VII (page 45), but before we get anxious about just how to take care of plants we must know how to get them, and before getting them we must know what to give them to grow in—the plant's foundation. So for a little we must be content with those prosaic but altogether essential matters of soil, manures and fertilizers, which in the next chapter I shall try to make clear in as brief manner as possible.

CHAPTER III

SOILS, MANURES AND FERTILIZERS

The soil must furnish the whole foundation of plant life. For centuries those who have grown things have realized the vital importance of having the soil rich or well supplied with plant food; and if this is important in growing plants in the field or flower garden, where each vegetable or flower has from one to several cubic feet of earth in which to grow, how imperative it is to have rich soil in a pot or plant box where each plant may have but a few cubic inches!

But the trouble is not so much in knowing that plants should be given rich soil, as to know how to furnish it. I well remember my first attempt at making soil rich and thinking how I would surprise my grandmother, who worked about her plants in pots every day of her life, and still did not have them as big as they grew in the flower garden. I had seen the hired man put fertilizer on the garden. That was the secret! So I got a wooden box about two-thirds full of mellow garden earth, and filled most of the remaining space with fertilizer, well mixed into the soil, as I had seen him fix it. I remember that my anxiety was not that I get too much fertilizer in the soil, but that I would take so much out of the bag that it would be missed. Great indeed was my chagrin and disappointment, twelve hours after carefully setting out and watering my would-be prize plants, to notice that they had perceptibly turned yellow and wilted. And I certainly had made the soil rich.

So the problem is by no means as simple as might at first be supposed. Not only must sufficient plant food be added to the soil but it must be in certain forms, and neither too much nor too little may be given if the best results are to be attained.

Now it is a fact established beyond all dispute that not only food, but air and water, as well, must be supplied to the roots of growing plants; and this being the case, the mechanical condition of the soil in which the plant is to grow has a great deal to do with its success or failure. It must be what is termed a porous and friable soil—that is, one so light and open that water will drain through it without making it a compact, muddy mass. One of the things I noticed about my special fertilizer soil, mentioned above, was that it settled, after being watered, into a solid mass from which water would not drain and into which air could not penetrate.

It is next to impossible to find a soil just right for house plants, so, as a general thing the only way to get a good soil is to mix it yourself. For this purpose several ingredients are used. If you live in a village or suburb, where the following may be procured, your problem is not a difficult one. Take about equal parts of rotted sod, rotted horse manure and leaf-mould from the woods and mix thoroughly and together, adding from one-sixth to one-third, in bulk, of coarse sand. If a considerable quantity of soil will be required during the year, it will be well to have some place, such as a bin or large barrel, in which to keep a supply of each ingredient. The sod should be cut three or four inches thick, and stacked in layers with the grassy sides together, giving an occasional soaking, if the weather is dry, to hasten rotting. The manure should be decomposed under cover, and turned frequently at first to prevent burning out; or sod and manure can be rotted together, stacking them in alternate layers and forking over two or three times after rotting has begun. The manure furnishes plant food to the compost, the rotted sod "body," the leaf-mould water-absorbing qualities, and the sand, drainage qualities.

If the soil is wanted at once, and no rotted sod is to be had, use good garden loam, preferably from some spot which was under clover-sod the year before. If it is difficult to obtain well-rotted manure, street sweepings may be used as a substitute, and old chip-dirt from under the wood pile, or the bottom of the woodshed if it has a dirt floor, will do in place of leaf-mould. Peat, or thoroughly dried and sweetened muck are also good substitutes for leaf-mould. Finely screened coal ashes may take the place of sand.

If you live in the city, where it is difficult to obtain and to handle the several materials mentioned, the best way is to get your soil ready mixed at the florists, as a bushel will fill numerous pots. If you prefer to mix it yourself, or to add any of the ingredients to the soil you may have, most florists can supply you with light soil, sand, peat or leaf-mould and rotted manure; and sphagnum moss, pots, saucers and other things required for your outfit. If a large supply is wanted, it would probably be cheaper to go to some establishment on the outskirts of the city where things are actually grown, than to depend upon the retail florist nearer at hand.