330 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



I will give you a rule to find the number of plants you want for 

 any given piece of land. There are 43,560 square feet in one acre; 

 now multiply the distance between the low, bj'^ the distance between 

 the plants in the row and use that a? a divisor for the 43,560 and 

 you will have the number of plants for one acre — or any piece of 

 land the same way by taking the number of square feet in the piece- 



I have great trouble in getting plants from nurserj'inen in good 

 condition — the plants come packed in wet moss, which heats and 

 spoils them. I have had them come so hot, I could not hold my 

 hand in them. I will give 3m:)u a plan of my own for sending plants. 

 Take a common market basket, put one inch of soil in the bottom; 

 put in the plants, roots in the soil, and set the basket in a tub with 

 two inches of water for five minutes and then take out. The soil 

 keeps them cool and moist and gives them nourishment, and you can 

 carry them all over the world if you set them in two inches of water 

 once a week. I carried two baskets to Centralia, Wash., and stopped 

 two weeks in Missoula, and when I got to my destination I set the 

 plants out and did not lose one plant. This was in the fall in Nov- 

 ember. 



I will give 3^ou a good rule for setting plants: Take a piece of 

 sawblade and make a scoop about as big as your hand, then fasten 

 a wooden handle to it. Run the blade of the scoop on one side about 

 three inches from the plant, then on the other, then 3^ou can take up 

 the plant without disturbing the root much; make a hole in the soil 

 where you wish to set your plant, put it in with the soil firmly 

 around it, being careful to not cover the crown, and you cannot tell 

 that it has ever been moved or its growth prevented for a moment. 



In packing and marketing berries, have your boxes full quarts 

 and clean; do not put small berries on the bottom and large ones on 

 top. Keep them out of the sun. Fill the boxes rounding full. I 

 never have found a quart cup that would hold the berries in a box 

 filled in that waj'. In that way you show the people you are doing 

 an honest business. 



The CkOZY Canna. — I received a small growing plant of it two 

 summers ago. It was too early to set it in the open ground, so I 

 potted it, and when the season was sufficiently advanced it was 

 bedded out and grew — how it did grow!^and bloomed all summer. 

 Just before cold weather came on, I took it up very carefully, gave 

 it a paint keg for a home, with rich soil to live in, and after a short 

 interval it bloomed again, continuing to do so all winter. In the 

 spring, I took it from the keg, cut it all to pieces, gave away several 

 and kept two large clumps myself. Owing to the dry weather it 

 did not do so well as before, though it was not entirely without 

 bloom at any time during the summer. In the fall, I put one of the 

 clumps in the cellar, where it lay all winter, apparently a lump of 

 dry earth. About the first of May, I divided it again, this time in 

 three parts, two of which I gave away, and the third piece I placed 

 in the center of a circular geranium bed, where it now promises to 

 do great things; the other I potted in the autumn and have enjoyed 

 the beauty of its rich bloom in the house when other flowers were 

 not very plentiful. — IVestern Gardener. 



