THE IRIS. 235 



tained; and these were enduring dry weather all right. A 

 man must watch things. I visited a friend in Chicago. He 

 was trying to raise grapes. Said he, "They are not doing 

 well ; I took the very best care of them ; I had a load of man- 

 ure put in each hole and then had the grapes planted on it." 

 Poor things, they were dying with dyspepsia. He would have 

 been sick himself if he had to eat a whole ox at a meal. We 

 get choice things and want to do the best we can by them and 

 overdo it. 



A gentleman in Minnesota bought a lot of peonies. A year 

 later he asked me to see them. I went. They were poor, 

 dwarfed, sickly things. Said I, "I know just what you did. 

 You dug a trench, filled it with manure, fresh at that, then 

 put in the roots and covered them with manure in winter. 

 You have surfeited them. This fall take them up and put 

 them in a fresh piece of ground that has not been enriched 

 lately and you will save them." I dug up one poor thing. It 

 had the club foot. It could not possibly throw out any young 

 roots. All the sustenance had to come through absorption 

 from the old diseased root. 



In the case of irises a man will find the tops wilting and 

 falling off the rhizome. What is the cause? Wet feet prob- 

 ably and too much manure. Yet these perennials are hardy, 

 and when you understand their needs and keep on the right 

 side of them you are all right. You have two neighbors, one 

 on each side of you. You wish to be on the best of terms with 

 them, but they are entirely different and what would please 

 one would not please the other. But you soon find out their 

 peculiarities and treat them accordingly. Some irises, like 

 the Japs, want wet feet at blooming time. The same treat- 

 ment would not suit the German varieties. The Achorus 

 family and many of our wild native sorts will bloom in water, 

 a condition which would rot other kinds. 



SOME OF THE BEST KINDS FOR BEGINNERS. 



We would not advise the most expensive sorts to begin 



