STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 87 



FLORICULTURE KOR THE HOME : 



So much has been written on the subject of floriculture, during the 

 past ten years, that it has become like an old field whose surface-soil is 

 exhausted ; it needs the subsoil plow. 



The nature and requirements of plants need to be more thoroughly 

 studied. Many experiments are made, but their results are not as carefully 

 watched, compared and recorded as they should be. 



Plants are treated too much as if they possessed a human organiza- 

 tion. Man has a power of adaptation to any climate and to various 

 foods, but the structure of plants makes it impossible for them to adapt 

 themselves to all physical conditions. The old saw, "What is sauce for 

 the goose is sauce for the gander," may do for geese, or for people, but 

 not for plants. 



Landscape gardening deservedly stands classed as one of the six fine 

 arts. Door-yard gardening, and window gardening, however humble the 

 scale, are departments of this fine art. The artistic effect of the rows or 

 patches of sunflowers, hollyhocks or marigolds, seen in many rural yards 

 may not be visible to all eyes, yet who can doubt that even these have their 

 beneficial influence, and that their presence denotes a degree of culture 

 not found in homes where chicken and pig wallows adorn the yards. The 

 little ones who play under the sunflowers and hollyhocks will want pansy 

 and verbena beds when they have homes of their own. Things of beauty 

 appeal to and develop the intellect. Therefore we can not doubt why 

 God has made the flowers so beautiful and so free to all. But a long pre- 

 face, like a long grace, is not to be endured before a good meal, much 

 less before a poor one. 



Flower culture by amateurs may be divided into three departments, 

 viz : Door-yard gardening, pot-plants for summer, and pot-plants for 

 winter. 



In out-door gardening one of the first points for consideration is the 

 laying out of the beds. In grounds of ordinary size, it is now generally 

 conceded that beds dotted around singly in the grass have a more pleas- 

 ing effect than when grouped into one garden-plat. Most plants flourish 

 best in beds made level with the surrounding surface ; if the beds are 

 elevated it should be but slightly, and they should be sloped from the 

 center to the margin. Beds should never be so large that all parts of 

 them can not be conveniently reached for the purpose of weeding and 

 pruning. The outlines of beds are more easily preserved if formed of 

 curves or obtuse angles — elaborate pattern^ do not pay for the trouble of 

 making and keeping them in order. A circular, or oval bed, when filled 

 with flowers, looks quite as attractive as a star-shaped one, have it never 

 so many fine points. We are apt to forget, in our zeal for beautifiil beds, 

 that designs that can be taken in at a glance on paper, with all their 

 details, can only be seen by sections in real flower beds. Stars are very 

 beautiful in the firmament, but they poorly adorn the earth unless we can 

 take a birds-eye view of them from above. 



There is one form of flower bed with which some localities are sadly 

 afflicted : I allude to those long, narrow strips of earth, two or three 



