340 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



work each day for the first year, and during last three years five 

 hours per day in general gardening under the head gardener. The 

 pupil is transferred to various departments, according to merit, and 

 thus becomes familiar with all branches of the work. The balance 

 of the time, or one-half of each day during the last three years, is 

 given to horticultural instruction, lectures, courses of reading, field 

 observations, etc. The course covers 924 exercises for each student 

 — floriculture, vegetable gardening, fruit culture, forestry, land- 

 scape gardening, surveying and drainage, bookkeeping, economic 

 entomology, general botany, botany of decorative plants, hard^ 

 wood plants, fruits, vegetables and weeds, economic mycology, 

 vegetable physiology and special thesis work. Nineteen students 

 have been admitted to the scholarship course since its inaugura- 

 tion in 1890. 



In addition to these garden scholarships, any suitably prepared 

 pupil, lady or gentleman, may be admitted as a tuition student and 

 is entitled to the same certificate as a scholarship pupil on comple- 

 tion of the prescribed course and examinations. Four students 

 have been admitted under these conditions. The aim is to teach 

 the principles and the actual practice of budding, grafting, pruning, 

 propagating, etc., of as large a variety of important plants as possi- 

 ble. In addition, any horticulturist or botanist may have free use of 

 the facilities the garden has for advanced study. Many have taken 

 advantage of these opportunities. From actual count of visitors 

 passing through the gates each day for the past few months, it is 

 estimated that from 100,000 to 150,000 people visit this place during 

 a year, — (Wisconsin Horticulturist.) 



GLADIOLUS CULTURE. 



MISS CLARA E. SALTER, VICTORIA. 



The gladiolus we consider the most beautiful and, at the same time, 

 the easiest raised of all tender bulbs. By tender bulbs we mean 

 those bulbs that have to be taken up and housed over winter. Last 

 summer we had in bloom one hundred bulbs, and thirteen different 

 varieties. This is the collection of years, for we have been a gladi- 

 olus "crank" for many years. We have all shades of pink, red, orange, 

 cream and pure white, although white is the most difficult to raise. 



In the fall, after quite a hard frost, we take a fine, dry, warm after- 

 noon and arm ourselves with a sharp spade and dig up our gladi- 

 olus bulbs. Be sure not to injure any of the bulbs. Take them and 

 shake all the earth off and cut the tops off about two inches above 

 the bulbs, with a sharp knife. Then take a box, put in a layer of dry 

 clean sand, then a layer of bulbs, and so on until your bulbs are all 

 packed. On the top put about two inches of sand. Then I bid my 

 bulbs a long good-bye apd put them to rest under the cellar stairs. 

 But the cellar most be dark and frost proof. 



The first fine weather in May I set out my bulbs. The most of 

 them will be sprouted, but that does no harm — does not injure 

 the sprouts. The larger the sprouts, the soouer the gladioli will be 

 up. I plant them out in the vegetable garden, for you cannot raise 



