248 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



year after year, and kept growing all tlie time, the plants were gradually 

 becoming weaker; that in order to maintain their vitality they need a 

 distinct period of rest. This is a natural inference, especially with plants 

 like the rose, that are natives of temi)erate climates. Now that quality 

 rather than quantity is preferred, and fiowei's of a different type, this 

 question of solid beds or benches becomes one of more than ordinary 

 importance. 



I know that good rose-growlers have time and again tried this process 

 of resting, when they had extra strong plants of some standard kinds, 

 that they felt like trying another year, latlier than replanting with young 

 plants, perhaps late in the summer, but it has seldom if ever paid. The 

 object, however, has been one of experiment rather than any well- 

 defined attempt at restoring vitality. 



A trial for a single year on a raised bench can not be so efficient as one 

 for a series of years on solid beds. There is a great deal more to the 

 resting of plants than sim])ly withholding water. Drying out can 

 scarceh' be called resting. It is highly probable that in most cases, if 

 not in all, much of this kind of resting is more apparent than real, and 

 that a good deal of secret and subtile w'ork, of which we know little or 

 nothing, needs be done before the plants can regain their energy. Plants 

 show this when their resting period is curtailed or unduly interfered with. 



We have no facilities at the college for making any extensive observa- 

 tions along this line, but I may say that our experience with violets every 

 year leads me to think there is something in it. No treatment we can 

 give them in the greenhouse will give the returns they will make in a 

 cold-frame in the spring, if kept from severe frosts in the winter. It is 

 true their period of flowering is greatly shortened, but 1 don't believe 

 it is any more natural for the violet to flower six months in the year than 

 it is for the apple or the cherry. I have thought that if violet-growers 

 who have only a limited demand would build their houses in sections, or 

 partitioned so that rest could be given the plants at different periods, 

 natural conditions could be more closely imitated, disease better held in 

 check, the flowers would be larger, better in fragrance and color, and 

 more numerous. It might give the grower better control of the market 

 by his having the largest crop of flowers when prices were higiu^st. It 

 would lessen the cost of production by giving as many flowers, though in 

 a much less time, so that the houses could be used for some other purpose 

 if needs be. When grown in large quantities the houses could be con- 

 structed entirely independent of each other, so that the same control 

 could be had over the plants as in case of the one built in sections. 1 

 speak of the violet simply because it is the only flower I have had the 

 oi)]!ortunity to observe in this respect. 



There are two or three things that suggest themselves to me in con- 

 nection with this subject of gi'owing and resting pUints that may l)ear 

 indirectly on this subject. I am not aware that botanists or ])om()logists 

 have ever given any satisfactory reason why certain varieties of peach or 

 pear, for instance, come into bearing condition soon(>r than others. ^Vhat 

 physiological changes take place A\ithin the plant itself in order to bring 



