172 NEBllASKA STATE HOKTICULTUllAL SOCIETY. 



good. Thus the two varieties give first-class bloom through 

 the entire growing season, while either one without the other 

 would scarcely be considered a success. We are still waiting 

 for a commercial dark pink carnation, and for lack of a 

 better one will continue to grow Aristocrat, which reallv 

 belongs to the fancies, not being prolific enough to grow in 

 commercial quantities. JNIay Da^^, one of the introductions 

 of 1909, I believe will be grown quite largely when it becomes 

 better known. It is a beautiful shell pink, very prolific, and 

 blossoms placed in a mixed vase of carnations were in fair 

 shape three days after the others had gone to sleep. 



Methods of gTowing carnations vary greatly in different 

 sections of the country, and I do not presume to tell you that 

 our method would be successful under different climatic 

 conditions or in different soil, etc., but will endeavor to tell 

 you in as plain words as possible our methods, beginning 

 with the propagation of young stock. There is a wide di« 

 versity of opinion as to the use of bottom heat in propagating 

 carnation cuttings. Some growers claim the bottom heat 

 has a weakening effect upon the cuttings, and I believe this 

 is true if carried to extremes, but the only difference I can 

 see between cuttings rooted in a temperature of 50 degrees 

 overhead and a sand temperature of 58 degrees, and cuttings 

 rooted in a temperature of 52 degrees, both in the sand and 

 overhead, is that the space is occupied from ten days to two 

 weeks longer without the bottom heat, in which time another 

 batch would be well on the way to rooting. After the cut- 

 tings are well rooted, which usually takes about twenty-one 

 days, they are potted rather firmly in two-inch pots, using 

 ordinary black prairie soil with a little sand added, but no 

 manure. 



We commence propagating about the first of December, 

 starting with those varieties which we wish to greatly in- 

 crease in stock, and in this way our plants are not robbed 

 of any gTeat amount of strength at any one time. The 

 earlier potted plants, after they become well rooted and 



