322 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



liberal dressing of manure each fall, to be worked into the soil the 

 following spring, in order to insure large, perfect flowers in abun- 

 dance. 



The old-finished, fringed, fragrant Garden Pink, blooming in 

 June, are one of my must-huvcs. There is a wdiite variety, very large 

 and fragrant, but to my mind not so pretty as the pink variety. 

 Both have the bad habit of bursting the calyx when fully open. One 

 of the most enjoyable things I had last year was a bed of Picotee 

 Pinks, or hardy Carnations. I purchased a packet of seeds for ten 

 cents, planted them in a box outdoors two years ago this coming 

 May, and raised about thirty plants. When they were about thret 

 inches in height I trasplanted them into a well prepared bed of quite 

 light soil. The cutworms probably took one-third of the plants ; the 

 others grew finely, and by winter were fine, stocky plants. I did 

 not cover them, as I have found that Garden Pinks resent covering. 

 I have lost many roots by the leaves drifting on to them. The rab- 

 bits immediately pre-empted that bed for pasture, and in the spring 

 it was a sorry spectacle for a flower crank. To put it mildly, I was 

 vexed and declared a war of extermination against the rabbits. I 

 had planted that bed for a purpose, not for the rabbits. It was a 

 little experiment to test their hardiness here, which I rather doubted. 

 Every plant was well trimmed, some to the ground ; the latter never 

 came to anything ; the others I carefully took up and reset so as to 

 fill the whole space, and soon they just fairly jumped, and stooled 

 out so thickly that when they budded I thought I had never seen any- 

 thing so full. Perhaps the rabbits did the correct think in pruning 

 them. When they bloomed I felt the experiment was a success far 

 beyond my expectations, and that is saying much. All the plants gave 

 double flowers excepting two, and these were pretty ; some of them 

 were nearly as large, and all but the two fully as double, and all as 

 fragrant as the florists' Carnation. The colors ranged from pure 

 white through shades of pink to the darkest red I ever saw in 

 Carnations. Some were white, edged with pink, others white or pink 

 penciled in darker shades, while one very dark red looked as though 

 it had been powdered with gold dust. I assure you I wovtld not have 

 undertaken to have counted the flowers on that bed. They did not 

 burst the calyx, but of course the stems were short so you could not 

 pick them without sacrificing the buds. I had so many I picked them 

 buds and all, and never enjoyed any flowers as much, and I am sure 

 the neighbors did also. They were at their full bloom in July and 

 into August, but there was never'a time after they commenced bloom- 

 ing that I could not pick a nice bouquet until November. I am 

 verv anxious about how that bed will come through this winter. If 



