52 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



blast the hopes of the grower of apples, peaches, plums, cherries, melons^ 

 beans, tomatoes, potatoes, and other cultivated plants. 



These drawings are not simply copies of other drawings, but in all cases 

 are made from original sections, cultures and full-grown specimens. 

 They are as good as anything I have ever seen in use by any botanist, and 

 to us the}' are especially valuable for instruction in special courses at 

 the College and at Farmers' Institutes. 



THE BOTANIC GARDEN. 



This area along both sides of the brook consists of two acres; another 

 acre near the boiler house is devoted to grasses, other forage plants, and 

 weeds. In all there are a little over 1,800 species of plants found growing 

 there. 



I present here the substance of two papers which were read at meetings 

 in Detroit, last August: 



*In managing a small botanic garden for the past twenty years, my 

 attention has often been forcibly called to many peculiarities of plant 

 growth. An attempt has been made to grow well in suitable spots in the 

 open air over 2,000 species of hardy plants. These plants were collected 

 in Michigan and elsewhere, from woods, river bottoms, marshes, swamps, 

 open fields where the soil was wet, dry, loam, muck, sand or clay. Consid- 

 erable knowledge has been gained in person by digging plants in their 

 native haunts and by transfetring them at different seasons of the year 

 from one portion of the garden to another. 



Many years ago I started out with the thought somewhat vaguely fixed 

 in mind that I might find a spot congenial to each species and there plant 

 a patch of it and it would thrive for all time to come, or at least for my 

 time. Most of the plants started well and thrived remarkably in their 

 new homes which I had selected, but after two to six years or longer, 

 many of them began to show signs of failing or died outright, notwith- 

 standing all other species of higher plants in each case were diligently 

 kept from intruding, and usually some fertilizers were employed. Neither 

 were the plants in the patches allowed to crowd very closely, for they 

 were thinned as occasion seemed to require. 



I learned long since that there is no such thing as planting once for all 

 time. There is no such thing as stabilitj', for plants need a change sooner 

 or later and will have it or perish. 



After a few years plants of the mint family of thirty to sixty species 

 began in numerous cases to show lack of thrift. The ground was clogged 

 with thick mats of rootstocks starving for more room. They were thinned, 

 but still they dwindled. A number were affected with rust and other 

 fungi, and numerous insects had learned where to find them — in 

 fact, seemed to have settled down to live in that bed of plants. The fol- 

 lowing plants, especially, failed or died in the middle of each plot, and 

 the healthier portions were to be seen about the margins where root- 

 stocks had encroached on new soil: 



Glecoma liederacea, Lycojnis sinnahis, Lycopus Virginicus, Mentha Cana- 

 densis, Monarda didynut, Xepeta Cataria, VIeckin nepetoidef. 



*[Read at the meeting of A. A. A. S., held in Detroit, August, 181)7.] 



