fSpS. 



' GARDENING. 



199 



Many vegetables and decorative plants 

 required for the garden may be advanced 

 materally by sowing the seeds in a 

 hotbed. Among the former are cabbage, 

 cauliflowers, tomatoes, celery, peppers, 

 beets, etc., and cannas, dahlias, asters, 

 balsams, cosmos, coreopsis, marigolds, 

 petunias, castor oil plants, etc. among 

 flowers. Material raised in this way, and 

 properly hardened off can be transplanted 

 easily in the open garden with less lia- 

 bility of loss than if the plants were 

 brought from a distance. 



Care must be taken with the watering 

 and ventilation. It is well to leave some 

 of the sashes slightly open at all times, 

 to permit of the escape of steam, and as 

 the season advances the sashes may be 

 removed altogether on fine mild days. 

 Seedlings in hotbeds require very little 

 water, for the thick mass of manure 

 beneath preserves the soil in a moist con- 

 dition. But even with this there are times 

 in bright weather when the soil becomes 

 dry and watering necessary, and then it 

 should be applied early on sunny days, 

 giving such ventilation as may be needed 

 to dry the foliage before night comes on. 



Spent hotbeds, i. e., those beds in which 

 the manure as a heating medium has 

 become exhausted, are useful for a variety 

 of purposes. In early summer they may 

 be used for cucumbers; in August or Sep- 

 tember they will prove handy in raising 

 such plants as seedling hollyhocks and 

 pansies; and in winter very good violets 

 can be grown in them. There is thus no 

 season of the year at which a hotbed can 

 not be turned to good account, and one 

 of six lights or sashes should certainly 

 pay for itself the first season. 



Illinois, John Reardon. 



Societies. 



Tree Planting and Lawn Improve- 

 ment Association, Grand Rapids, Mich. 

 — At a meeting held March 7 this associ- 

 ation voted in favor of the half holiday 

 on Arbor Day in order to allow every per- 

 son in Grand Rapids to put a half day's 

 work on the improvement of their lawns. 



Warren County Horticultural 

 Society, Ohio. — A meeting was held 

 in the mayor's office February 10, Presi- 

 dent J. T. Mardis in the chair. Dr. G. D. 

 Lind read a paper on "Plants in Warren 

 County and Their Relation to the Citi- 

 zens." The next meeting will be on the 

 second Thursday in March. 



Oceana County Horticultural So- 

 ciety, Mich.— Mr. H. Meyers read a 

 paper on "Local Yellows" at a meeting 

 held last week. It was decided to ask 

 the Mason County Horticultural Society 

 to what extent the yellows had gained 

 foot hold in that county, and what steps 

 had been taken for its eradication. 



Wayne County Horticultural So- 

 ciety, Va.— At the last meeting of the 

 society an able address was given by Dr. 

 Taylor, of Fountain City, embracing a 

 resume of the history of horticulture in 

 this county. The next meeting will be 

 held on the second Saturday in March, 

 when an address will be delivered by 

 Stephen Kuth. 



Muskegon County Horticultural 

 Society, Mich.— At a recent meeting of 

 this society held in their rooms at the 

 court house, the sugar beet question was 

 brought up and fully discussed. It was 

 decided that the society make a collection 

 of sugar beets for analysis. J. H. Ran- 

 dall, of Norton, gave a talk on "Grape 

 Culture." Mrs. C. S. Tripp spoke on the 



"Duties of the Farmer's Wife in Connec- 

 tion with the Farm." 



Hampden County, Mass. Horticult- 

 ural society. — This society met Match 

 9, and decided to hold a sweet pea exhi- 

 bition this year, July 20 and 21 being 

 selected as the dates. Preliminary plans 

 for the show were discussed, but no 

 decision was reached as to the place 

 where the show is to be held. 



Stark County Horticultural So- 

 ciety, Ohio —At the last meeting of 

 this society N. E. Moffit read a very able 

 and interesting essay on the production 

 and consumption of the American fruit 

 crop. The secretary was instructed to 

 send a communication to the legislature 

 urging the passage of the bill recently in- 

 troduced for the purpose of exterminating 

 the San Jose scale. 



Leavenworth County Horticult- 

 ural Society, Kan. — A well-attended 

 meeting was held March 5 at the court 

 house, during the afternoon. FredEasson, 

 delegate to the State Horticultural Sociey, 

 submitted his report. This society dis- 

 cussed the question of tree planting and 

 spraying, and upon this subject there 

 appeared to be a diversity of opinion. 

 The next meeting will be held in April, 

 and the subject for discussion will be 

 "Small Fruit Culture." 



Winneshiek County Horticultural 

 Society, Iowa. — The first regular meet- 

 ing was held at the court house in De- 

 corah on Saturday, March 12. A cordial 

 invitation was extended to every one in 

 Winneshiek county interested in horticul- 

 ture and floriculture, and a large and 

 enthusiastic meeting was the result. 

 Papers were read by W. T. Symonds, R. 

 F. Tyler, John Elwick, O. A. Berg, H. A. 

 Bigelow, A. Jacobson and Dr. E. Cart- 

 wright. The question box and a general 

 discussion closed the session. 



Springfield Mass., Amateur Horti- 

 cultural Society. — Sweet peas received 

 special attention at the last meeting oi 

 this societj', held March 4. William J. 

 Eldred and Mr. Brainard each read a 

 paper on this flower, and the Rev. W. T. 

 Hutchins, president of the society, spoke 

 on some novelties in sweet peas for this 

 season. C. M. Hartzell, who is one of 

 the most enthusiastic members of the 

 association, has secured 1500 packages 

 of sweet pea seed from a Philadelphia 

 concern, and they are to be distributed 

 among the school children by the several 

 principals. Mr. Hartzell will offer five 

 prizes for the best displays raised from 

 the seed, the awards to be made at the 

 Mountain Park show. He has placed an 

 order for 117 varieties of sweet peas for 

 his own raising, and he expects to have 

 an exceptionally fine collection this year. 



Douglas County Horticulural So- 

 ciety, Neb. — At the last meeting of this 

 society Mr. Ptter Youngers, the state 

 superintendent of horticulture, urged 

 Douglas county to make a full display at 

 the exposition to be held this summer, 

 cither as an organized effort of the society 

 or in union with the state in the general 

 display. He said that Nebraska must 

 depend largely on Douglas count} 7 for the 

 perishable features of the exhibit, such as 

 small fruits, vegetables, etc. The follow- 

 ing persons were appointed to take the 

 matter in hand and endeavor to make an 

 artistic display: E. H. Walker, Florence; 

 Otto Barsh, East Omaha; P. P. Meigen. 

 West Omaha; Fred Wholers, Douglas; C. 

 H. Glissman, McArdle; Dr. H. Link, 

 Millard; Robert Douglas. Chicago; O. A. 

 Wolcott, Elkhorn; Charles Grau, Jeffer- 



son; F. E. Scott, Union; F. R. Martin, 

 Omaha. 



STARTING SPECIMEN CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 



Lengthening days remind us that it is 

 time to commence the propagation of 

 chrysanthemums for specimen plants. 

 Varieties for this purpose should be of 

 medium height, and the stems well clad 

 with healthy foliage. The flowers should 

 be erect, fully double, of medium size and 

 distinct color. I make a trial of twenty- 

 five or more new varieties every year, but 

 it is seldom that more than three or four 

 prove suitable for exhibition. Among a 

 list of desirable varieties will be found 

 many old ones. Our stock plants are 

 now in cold frames. By giving them good 

 protection we are enabled to obtain cut- 

 tings at any time of nearly all the varie- 

 ties we wish to grow. Some few, espe- 

 cially those grown as single stemmed 

 specimens, are shy in producing cuttings. 

 These we place in a more genial tempera- 

 ture, our object being to get in our batch 

 as near as we can together. Stock plants 

 which have been kept in a higher temper- 

 ture than the cold frame continue grow- 

 ing, and in such cases it is better to cut 

 them back than take overgrown cuttings. 



Opinions vary as to the proper time to 

 takecuttings. I have been in the habit of 

 inserting them early in January. While 

 this gave a longer season of growth, it 

 often happened that cuttings taken so 

 early ran to bloom prematurely. Some 

 are ruined for the season, and others con- 

 siderable' set back, while a few break 

 again and make good plants. Ivory, 

 Cullingfordii and John Shrimpton have 

 made good plants after breaking into 

 bud early, and pompons are liable to 

 behave in this way. My experience has 

 been that cuttings struck about the mid- 

 dle of February make the best plants, 

 although one lot of prize winners I know 

 of were started in March. Preference 

 should always be given to root cuttings 

 over those growing on the stem. When I 

 find a variety that persistently refuses to 

 make root cuttings, producing only stem 

 cuttings, I shake it out, put it into a 

 smaller pot and grow it directly into a 

 specimen. The only fault I find with such 

 is that they make specimens of too large 

 a size. 



Chrysanthemums will root in any tem- 

 perature above freezing, and in England 

 it is customary in many places to insert 

 them in pots placed in cold frames. By 

 this plan it is claimed the plants are 

 strengthened in constitution, but I am 

 not aware that it makes much difference, 

 especially in a plant that responds to 

 good culture so quickly as does the chrys- 

 anthemum. We use an ordinary propa- 

 gating bed with a bottom heat of about 

 60°, and a minimum air temperature of 

 50°. This insures quick rooting, giving 

 us the space for other stock. Cuttings 

 should be prepared with a sharp knife, 

 and shorn of a few of the lower leaves, 

 and the tips of the upper ones, which 

 would otherwise hang about the base of 

 the cuttings and encourage damping. 

 When this takes place it is almost impos- 

 sible to prevent its spread through the 

 whole bed. They will need a liberal sup- 

 ply of water for the first few days, and 

 thorough shading when the sun shines. 

 They should be rooted in about three 

 weeks and then may be out into small 

 pots, using a rather light compost. 



The following list of new varieties are 

 well worth trying as specimens: Mrs. J. 

 Withers, Martin A. Ryerson, West New- 

 ton, President Leon Say, T- H.Woodford, 

 Lawn Tennis, Casco and Katherine Leech. 



T. D. H. 



