Out Door Flowers axd Plants. 109 



excess, or they may be useless, because some other element is lack- 

 ing to make them available; or if they are wanting in the soil, 

 they may not be in kind or form what the plants need. It will 

 contribute greatly to the successful cultivation of any crop to know 

 the elements required by that crop, both their amount and prop- 

 erties, and the composition and condition of soil best fitted to fur- 

 nish these elements. Chemical analysis of the soil may not be 

 able to give us just the proportion and amount of the essentials 

 therein, nor can we always supply the particular chemical element 

 that seems to be lacking in a form to secure the desired result, but 

 we can give the soil the material needed and help nature's labor- 

 atory in the preparation of plant food. 



Mr. Geo. J. Kellogg, of Janesville, followed with a paper on 



OUT DOOR FLOWERS AND PLANTS. 



" Then wherefore, wherefore were they made, 

 All dyed with rainbow lights, 

 All fashioned with supremest grace, 

 Upspringing day and night. 



" Springing in valleys green and low, 

 And on the mountains high, 

 And in the silent wilderness, 

 Where no man passes by. 



" To comfort man, to whisper hope, 

 When'er his faith is dim. 

 For he who careth for the flowers, 

 Will much more care for him." 



When spring first breaks the bands of the ice king, ready to 

 beautify the earth, come millions of wild flowers all over the 

 land. And the lovers of the beautiful have so improved nature's 

 gifts as to give us almost beneath the snowbanks the hyacinth, 

 crocus, tulips and a host of others, all desirable and indispensable. 

 These must be planted in early autumn. 



With, and immediately following these, come the early flowering 

 shrubs, but the choicest can only be grown with care and winter 

 protection. Pyrus Japanica Weigelia and Fringe tree usually 



