354 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



grows as fast as it does the first week. It grows with wonderful rapidity 

 in the first week and the first ten days after it gets above the ground ; it 

 grows with wonderful rapidity up to about the time we eat it. Then, 

 gradually', there is a loss in the rate of growth. It gradually, slowly 

 lapses until at the time of ripening seed there is no plant in cultivation 

 which moves forward so slowly as a radish plant in maturing its seed. 

 This fall, on our seed farm, we actually had radish plants that were forty- 

 five days from the time the seed was formed in the pods until the time we 

 cut them, and then the seed was hardly ripe. I don't know of any plant 

 which matures so slowly when it comes to final maturity. In celery it is 

 just the opposite. It comes forward with marvelous rapidity at the last, 

 and yet just perceptibly moves at first. 



Now, isn't it necessary, if we are going to grow these, to understand 

 these characteristics? Can you understand them without caring for them 

 and loving them and being in some respect in touch with them? I think 

 not, my friends, and I think that that is the only secret of success, or the 

 great secret of success. The secret of these gentlemen who have talked 

 is that they care for the plants they have in charge, and they love them; 

 and in loving them are quick to give them what they want, and thus they 

 succeed. It is true love, after all, which is the great mainspring of all suc- 

 cess, and it is through the jo}^ of love that success comes. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Eiehl: I would like to ask Prof. Tracy two questions. What is 

 the best variety of Lima bean for private cultivation — for quality and 

 productiveness? Secondly, what is the best fertilizer to produce the 

 crop? 



Prof. Tracy: Suppose I should ask Mr. Morrill, here, who has had 

 some experience, what is the best peach? I think he would find it difficult 

 to answer, and so I find it just as difficult to answer without taking a 

 great deal of time, as to which is the best of the varieties of Lima bean. 

 In the vicinity of New York they demand a thick, round bean, like Dreer's 

 Improved Lima. In the west, in Chicago, they want the large, flat ones, 

 the larger and the flatter the better, and 3'ou must grow ,your beans for 

 your market. For my own personal choice I would rather have the large, 

 flat beans, and I like any of the improved large strings, or improved 

 large Limas, better than the others. It is a little difficult to answer the 

 second question. You certainly should not use on any bean plant a rank, 

 crude fertilizer. The best fertilizer is one put on for the previous crop; 

 that is, making the ground as fertile as possible for previous crops, then 

 put on your special fertilizer. The things we use are potash and bone, 

 more than anything else. We put both of these on for beans. 



Mr. Cook: Then wood ashes would be all right? 



Prof. Tracy: Yes, sir, it would be of value, but not specially valuable 

 with us. The best things we have found are those of which I have spoken. 



Mr. Smith: I would like to ask Prof. Tracy if the beau taxes the soil 

 severely? 



Prof. Tracy: Yes and no. Beans are one of the nitrogen collectors, 

 and at the same time they use a good deal of nitrogen. You can not sue- 



