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138 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
man has been planting for twenty or thirty years, or a man who has 
just started in the business. He ought to post himself so he will 
know whether the stockis in good condition. It is not a difficult 
thing to do, and it is a strange thing to me that people will not stop 
to think whether the plant is in proper condition to set. It might 
be it is not in proper condition today, but it can be put in proper 
condition. I think there is too little attention paid to that. The 
same thing holds good in the raspberry and strawberry plant as in 
the cabbage plant. I think gardeners who make a business of 
growing vegetables are more intelligent in their work than the peo- 
ple who growfruit. In planting fruit, people generally put in the 
plants when they have time or when it is convenient, no matter 
what the condition of the plant may be. If gardeners get a plant 
that is not in good condition they throw itaway. If a plant is out 
of condition it might be put in condition before planting and thus 
not have the plant a total loss. 
SINGLE DAHLIAS. 
In our search for plants for garden decoration, where continuous 
display is desired, we should not overlook the single dahlias, as 
they have no equals in the long list of annuals in point of useful- 
ness, either for the garden or housedecoration. While it is a vigor- 
ous growing plant, producing tubers as strong if not stronger than 
the double sorts, it gives the greatest satisfaction when grown from 
seed, providing al- 
ways the seed has 
been saved from the 
choicest varieties. 
= Seeds sown in a 
z= frame or hotbed, or 
=> even in pots in the 
house, early in April, 
make splendid flow- 
ering plants in Sep- 
» tember, which is as 
early as dahlias. 
should come into 
flower under any cir- 
cumstances, if the 
best results are to be 
=" obtained, as the 
dahlia does not delight in our hot, dry summers. We advise the 
saving of a few roots of the very best varieties, and of plants of the 
best habit, from which we can save seed, but where a large mass is 
required depend wholly upon seedlings, which should be planted 
about one foot apart in rows three feet apart and then discard the 
poorer ones, of which there will always be a goodly number. These 
can be thrown out when the first flowers appear, and the others will 
soon spread themselves sufficiently to cover the ground. The cer- 
tainty of securing some really choice flowers and the reasonable 
hope of getting a few superior ones, adds a great charm to the cul- 
tivation of this, like that of other flowers of a similar nature. We 
have always grown the single dahlias as annuals, and have no flow- 
erin our garden we value more highly. 
