264 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and care for them. They got them under the ground by digging 

 out as Httle sod as possible, and the soil was never disturbed after 

 they got the bulb out of sight. The next spring they informed me 

 their dahlias did not do well. 



After the frost has killed the tops, cut them off and dig up the 

 bulbs, shaking out the dirt as much as will come out without break- 

 ing the bulbs apart. Let them dry off half a day out-of-doors. Then 

 I put them into gunnysacks with a label on each sack stating variety 

 a.nd color. Then put them in the cellar but do not lay them on the 

 damp ground, or they will rot if your cellar has a ground floor. I 

 lay the sacks up on top of potato bins or pile them up where they 

 will keep dry. They must not chill, for if they do it is the end of 

 them. 



I do not separate the bunches till planting time in the spring, 

 as they keep better and are not so apt to dry and wither up. In 

 separating be sure there is an eye on each bulb, or it cannot grow. 

 They are the same as a potato, if you plant a piece of potato without 

 an eye it cannot grow. I cut them up with two or three bulbs on 

 each piece of old stalk, and that is sufficient for a nice big hill. If 

 more is planted in the hill, there is too much foliage, and you will 

 not get as many flowers. I have learned this from experience by 

 planting bulbs too liberally, to use them up when I had more than 

 enough on hand. 



Some varieties multiply more than others, but from a single 

 bulb of most any of the varieties if it does well there will be enough 

 to divide into from half a dozen to a dozen when dug in the fall. 



For the black lice that trouble the plants after they begin to 

 bloom, spray them with sulpho-tobacco soap. It can be got at the 

 drug store for twenty-five cents a cake. A cake makes four gal- 

 lons. Use a sprayer to put it on with. Directions come with the 

 soap. This soap is also good to spray roses or any other plant that is 

 troubled with lice. 



