224 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



if you leave it with him. Get your trees with soil adhering to the 

 roots, and your trees will even grow in your wagon box on the 

 road home. 



Set your trees in large holes. Use only cultivated soil. Set 

 the trees from three to six inches, according to size, deeper than 

 they grew in the nursery. If you cannot cultivate your ever- 

 greens, then mulch. Rotten straw or chips answers the purpose. 

 But remember cultivation is the best mulch and cultivate shal- 

 low but often. Never allow your soil to crack. If it is raining 

 cultivate as soon as you can work the soil without clogging. If 

 it is dry cultivate early and late. See you have a good dust 

 blanket for your evergreens, because then is the time they must 

 have it or die. Evergreens treated this way will grow and grow 

 fast, and you will have something that will keep the storms from 

 your dwellings and barns and, besides, beautify your home both 

 summer and winter. 



THE HYDRANGEA. 



Every person who owns a plot of ground should have at least 

 one specimen of the hardy Hydrangea. As a late summer and 

 autumn bloomer it is par excellence. It is as hardy as a Lilac 

 but needs more attention. It is a gross feeder. When planted 

 it should have the ground spaded very deep for quite a large 

 space and a liberal quantity of good manure well worked into 

 the soil. Every fall give it a heavy dressing of manure to be 

 worked into the soil in the spring, and then if you have any left 

 it will appreciate another liberal dressing. I hardly think you 

 could give a Hydrangea too much water or fertilizer, but it will 

 respond liberally to both. Every spring they should be pruned 

 severely. Cut out all weak or slender growths and cut back all 

 branches fully one-third or more and prune in such a way as to 

 keep the bush symmetrical ; then after the buds have started I 

 look over the bushes and rub off all the weak buds. If the work is 

 thoroughly done you will have large and perfect heads of flow- 

 ers, otherwise the heads will be small and individual flowers im- 

 perfect. Do not crowd Hydrangeas. I like them planted in 

 clumps of three or four, but do not plant them too closely. Do 

 not make the mistake that I did by putting three in the space 

 one should occupy. If your place is large you can plant in 

 clumps, but if small one specimen is enough. 



