218 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Doukia family, azalias, kalmias, rhododendrons and the hollies and many 

 other things. But this will turn his attention to the fact that there are 

 hosts of things which will do well in the west as well as in the east. We 

 think of the wide contrast between this great arboretum of the eastern 

 parks and then hang our heads as we think of the poor, miserable Lincoln 

 parks, and the repulsive approaches to our capital city. 



C. S. HARRISON. 

 York, Neb. 



SPECIALS IN GARDENING. 



By L. O. Williams, University Place. 



This is a day of specializing in many lines of business and professions. 

 The "specialist" is one who devotes his talents and time to one or two 

 particular lines of work, even though he may pay some attention to 

 several side lines. Even the great department stores of our cities are in 

 a measure an aggregation of "specialists," since every department has a 

 special manager or superintendent to look after its affairs. 



The professional market gardener must of necessity be likened to a 

 department store. The modern market garden should contain from 

 twenty-five to thirty classes of vegetables, each class being divided up 

 into varieties of from two or ten. This would seem to imitate a regular 

 "variety store" rather than a department store, for the professional gar- 

 dener has to supervise the planting and care of each and every variety 

 that he grows. If it were practicable for the garden to be divided up into 

 separate plats, each one being devoted to a separate class, the ideal of the 

 department garden might be realized. This plan of separation giving 

 each class a particular soil and location adapted to its wants is followed to 

 a certain extent. 



ADAPTATION OF VARIETIES 



The adaptation of certain vegetables to particular soils and locations 

 should receive the attention of every gardener. It is this idea that gives 

 rise to the primary thought I first had in mind when I began to discuss 

 "specials." 



There are many small growers of vegetables who have neither the 

 capital nor ability to carry on a general garden — keeping up a full line of 

 varieties. 



Such person may find by a little observation and study the fitness of 

 their particular soil and location for this or that vegetable — including a 

 half dozen kinds perhaps, and by giving his special attention to these cer- 

 tain lines he may win special success. There are many locations in or 

 about the city of Lincoln where the man or woman with a taste for garden- 

 ing could rent a few vacant lots and by studying the adaptation of that 

 particular soil to certain vegetables could make such otherwise idle ground 

 produce highly profitable returns. The matter of markets should also be 

 considered in determining the line of planting to be followed. If one 

 should find a special demand for early potatoes at good prices in his par- 



