i8g8. 



GARDENING. 



3ii 



sod broken up and one-half loam, with a 

 fair allowance of well-rotted cow manure, 

 charcoal and bone flour. The pots should 

 be well drained, as one of the main points 

 in the successful culture of these plants is 

 to preserve the soil in a sweet condition. 

 They will not require much water until 

 they start to make a good growth, but a 

 light syringing night and morning helps 

 them to break away. Shade during the 

 hottest part of the day, and pot on all 

 the plants as they require it. They 

 should be grown in a frame during the 

 summer months, placing them mar the 

 glass and throwing the lights off morn- 

 ings and evenings. John Barr. 

 Xatick, Mass. 



FROM THE COMMERCIAL STANDPOINT. 



We do not consider it worth while 

 bothering with old bulbs. If special care 

 is taken good results may be obtained, 

 but I have never found it to pay, as if 

 seed is sown at the proper time and the 

 plants skilfully handled, the young plants 

 will be as a rule far superior to old stock. 

 However, good specimens may be grown 

 from the old bulbs if the inquirer will dry 

 them off gradually, leaving them in the 

 pots and withholding water by degrees 

 until quite dormant, then take the plants 

 — pots and all — to some cool, shady place 

 outdoors, cover them to the depth of 

 about two inches with coarse sand and 

 leave them there for four to six weeks; 

 then take the old bulbs, shake out the 

 soil and re-pot. The} T should next be 

 placed in a frame, watered sparingly at 

 first and afterward cultivated the same 

 as young stock. This is the old way o ' 

 thirty or forty years ago, and it is good 

 enough, only that it spreads over two 

 years that which can be accomplished in 

 one. J. M. Keller. 



Brooklyn, N. V. 



Publications. 



BOOKS AND BULLETINS. 



Southern Fruit and Vegetable ship- 

 pers' Guide. — By P. M. Kiely — This is a 

 pamphlet of 155 pages dealing with the 

 crops most desirable from a market grow- 

 er's standpoint in the south. It contains 

 a large amount of information on the 

 selection for cultivation ol the varieties 

 of fruits and vegetables most salable in a 

 mature condition, together with average 

 prices on the various products and direc- 

 tions lor shipping and packing. Only a 

 small space is devoted to flowers, the 

 most important of which, in a commer- 

 cial sense, appears to betheCape jasmine. 



Fortieth Annual Report of the Mis- 

 souri Horticultural Society. — The 

 latest report of this veteran society, cov- 

 ering its work during the year 1897, 

 comes to hand in the usual attractive 

 form. Details are given of the various 

 meetings held by the society, and many 

 valuable papers and discussions are 

 printed in full. Numerous illust atious, 

 each conveying some useful lesson or sug- 

 gestion are scattered through its 400 

 pages. Altogether the society seems to 

 be in a very healthy condition, and the 

 apparent earnestness and diligence of the 

 members merit all the success which has 

 attended their ffforts over such a pro- 

 longed stretch of time Much of the util- 

 ity of the society's work, and consequent 

 value of its report, is due to the untiring 

 zeal of the secretary, L. A. Goodman, of 

 Westport, Mo. 



The English Tulip.— Barr & Sons, 

 London, England.— Under this head the 

 Messrs. Barr have printed a series of lec- 

 tures on the English tulip delivered at tin- 

 great tulip conference of the Royal \a 

 tional Tulip Society, held at the Royal 

 Botanic Society's Gardens, London, Eng- 

 land, May 12, 1897. In view of the 

 interest now taken in the development of 

 the bull) industry in this country, this 

 little pamphlet should be of some consid- 

 erable importance to the promoters of the 

 enterprise. The subject is divided and 

 treated as follows: "The Historv and the 

 Properties of the Florist's Tulip," by J, 

 W. Bentley; "Seed and Seedlings of the 

 Florist's Tulip," by Rev. F. L). Horner; 

 and "The Cultivation of the Florist's 

 Tulip," by C. W. Needham. 



Transactions of the Illinois Horti- 

 cultural Society.— The forty-second 



annual meeting of this society was held 

 at Springfield, 111., December 2S, 29 and 

 30, 1897, and the present volume con- 

 tains a full account of the gathering, also 

 of the annual meetings of the Northern Illi- 

 nois and Southern Illinois horticultural 

 societies. At these meetings manj- impor- 

 tant topics were freely discussed by the 

 ablest authorities of each section, and the 

 record of proceedings as here preserved 

 cannot fail to be of permanent value to 

 every practical horticulturist in the state, 

 and also to many outside its limits. 

 Among the most important features of 

 the book are the select lists of popular 

 fruits which have proved themselves most 

 serviceable in each locality. 



Yearbook of the Department of 

 Agriculture.— The yearbook of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture is a mine of 

 information on agriculture and related 

 sciences. In addition to the usual reports 

 of the various divisions, many papers and 

 special reports by experts " are sp-ead 

 through its pages, and in most cases 

 these are freely illustrated. The more 

 important of these papers from a purely 

 horticultural standpoint are as follows: 

 "Lawns and Lawn Making," byF, Lnm- 

 son-Scribner; "Hybrids and their Utiliza- 

 tion in Plant Breeding," by Walter T. 

 Swingle and Herbert J. Webber; "Some 

 Interesting Soil Problems," by Milton 

 Whitney; "Additional Notes on Seed 

 Testing." by Gilbert L. Hicks and Sotho- 

 ron Key; and "Danger of Importing 

 Insect Pests," by L. C. Howard. 



NOTES FROM GERMANY. 



Hardy perennials are very much in 

 demand, especially for cutting purposes, 

 but only those with relatively large flow- 

 ers in distinct, pure colors are esteemed. 

 Generally the flower stalks must be long 

 or the flower must be of unusual beauty 

 to cause it to be in demand for cutting. 

 This is the case with Gentiana cruciata, the 

 dark blue two inches long, bell-shaped 

 flowers of which I have seen much used in 

 these days for funeral decorations, 

 together with lily of the valley. Narcissus 

 poeticus and white lilac. It is but a short 

 time since long stemmed flowers were 

 used for bunches. Some years ago almost 

 all flowers were set upon wire but now 

 nobod\- will buy bouquets with wired 

 flowers. 



Not until recently has there been any 

 demand for potted plants and a great 

 many gardeners cultivated flowering 

 plants onlv for the purpose of cutting the 

 blooms. The enlarged importation of cut 

 flowers from the south of France and north 

 of Italy caused growers to cast about for 

 ways which might advance the interest 

 of the potted plant. Fortunately there 



exists here a society for the promotion of 

 plant culture among children. This 

 society gives young plants every spring 

 to children in the schools In the autumn 

 the plants are brought together and the 

 best cultivated ones are distinguished by 

 premiums. Last year 5,895 pot plants 

 were distributed in thirty-seven schools. 

 This year forty-two schools received over 

 0,000 plants which will be brought 

 together in September for a large exhibi- 

 tion, the first of this character ever held. 

 The plants are only given to the children 

 of the poorer classes and are given espe- 

 cially to the girls. A large proportion of 

 the plants are supplied free by the garden- 

 ers who calculate that the work the 

 society is doing will bringthem handsome 

 reward in later years. The plants most 

 distributed are pelargoniums, geraniums 

 and fuchsias. During the summer each 

 child will be given a larger pot and the 

 earth necessary for transplanting. 



Mineral manures are being used more 

 and more by nurseries as well as by ama- 

 teurs. The most valued are the so called 

 highly concentrated feeding salts, the 

 nitrate of potash and phosporic potash. 

 A very good way to make use of these is 

 to water the young plants for se\eral 

 weeks with a solution of one gram of 

 the nitrate of potash to 1000 grams of 

 water. At first the plants are watered 

 once a week with the solution. Then 

 they are watered with it twice a week 

 and finallj- every day. From this manur- 

 ing the plants grow very vigorously. 

 When they are in the most rapid stage of 

 their development they receive twice or 

 three times during a week a solution of 

 two-thirds of a gram of phosphoric 

 potash in 1000 grams of water, but thev 

 get no more of the nitrate. The result is 

 that in a few days the development of 

 leaves is almost entirely stopped. Then 

 flower buds begin to appear in great 

 numbers. This method of cultivation is 

 usetul especially for fuchsias, dahlias and 

 pelargoniums. A mixture of nitrate of 

 potash and phosporic potash in equal 

 quantities is found to be the best manure 

 for fruit trees, for shrubs and for vines. 

 Udo Dammer. 



The Amateur Horticultural Soci- 

 ety, Springfield, Mass.— The annual 

 rose show, June 21 and 22 was. as 

 usual, a great success. Evangelist hall 

 was filled with fine exhibits. Mayor 

 Eldridge, ol Chicopee had the largest dis- 

 play, forty-five varieties. He has over 

 400 bushes including eighty-six varieties 

 but the recent heavy rains had so dam- 

 aged many of the blooms that he declined 

 to exhibit them. Mrs. George H. Wells 

 had the only specimen in the hall of the 

 York and Lancaster rose. The onlv hardy 

 gladioli were exhibited bv Mrs" Abbie 

 Perry, who also staged some fine pansies 

 spinea, mignonette, Jacq roses and honey- 

 suckle. Win Goldthwait.ofLongmeadow 

 had handsome pa:onies, candytuft sweet' 

 William, gaillardias and three varieties of 

 Canterbury bell E. H. Barnev and C L 

 Simonds exhibited some fine lilies and 

 Aid. L. D. Robinson had, among other 

 flowers, some noteworthv pink and white 

 pyrethrums. Other excellent displays 

 were made by E. D. Stock, Mrs 1 W 

 Shilhngford, Mrs. Charles Candrian, Rev' 

 \\ . T. Hutchins, Mrs G. D. Cooley and 

 several others. 



Grand River Horticultural Society 

 Grand Rapids, Mich.— The strawberry 

 meeting of this society was eminently 

 successful as June 21 chanced to find the 

 crop in its prime. There were a number 

 of papers on timely topics. 



