166 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



As yet, I have not been able to get a double one out of a vast number 

 tried. 



To get double balsam flowers, keep your seed for years, and tbe flowers 

 will be more likely to come double. 



Here is a hybrid trumpet creeper that I have made that I like. 



A neighbor of mine has 3,000 seedling Japan lilies, and only one wortt 

 saving. 



Mr. Fuller held up a branch full of green and ripe Brinkley orange rasp- 

 berries — a seedling — and said that he held in his hands the handsomest 

 flower that he knew of; it was far handsomer than bachelor's buttons, and 

 had been an ornament to his garden all summer. 



In preparing a seed bed for flowers, make the soil fine ; if it were sifted 

 it would be all the better. Don't plant too deep. The true rule is to 

 cover seeds with earth to the thickness of a seed, and then cover the ground 

 with a white cotton cloth. The best manure that I have ever used is liquid 

 manure, made by water and cow droppings. 



SEEDLING DAHLIAS. 



Mr. Burgess exhibited a variety of new and beautiful seedling dahlias.. 

 He said — I give a dahlia plant six superficial feet. To propagate roots, 

 lay them down in beds in spring in a warm situation, and when they have 

 sprouted two incthes above the surface, take up the root and divide it with 

 one sprout to each cut, and plant them in holes dug two feet deep and twa 

 feet wide, and manured with a peck of compost, first setting a stake in the 

 hole to support the stalk when it grows. I planted and grew one year 

 11.775 seedling dahlias, and only got six worth saving. A seedling will 

 flower the first year, if it grows well. Seed should be planted in boxes, 

 covered until the seed vegetates. A dahlia needs watering extensively ; it 

 cannot well be watered too much. In potting all kinds of plants in the 

 fall, fill about half an inch of the bottom of the pot with clean sand. In 

 keeping dahlia roots, the great thing is to diy them well before putting 

 them away. They must then be stored in dry cellars. 



A natural dahlia, the flower from which all our beautiful ones originated, 

 has six petals. I counted the petals of one of my seedlings, the Suffolk 

 Hero, and found 307 petals. 



T. W. Field. — I wish that we could call things by their right names. 

 The same difficulty occurs in talking about curculio. I have heard talk 

 about catching them in bottles. A man might as well undertake to catch 

 foxes in bottles. I think we may get rid of many insects by the plan 

 recommended by Judge Cheever, that is burying them under the surface. 

 I think the larvae of rose-bugs may be served in the same way to great 

 advantage. In relation to planting wheat, it is true that we have often 

 Been how much better nature plants than men. Volunteer seeds of all 

 kinds produce wonderful crops. I have now a volunteer cucumber that is 

 a prolific bearer, and I once had a volvmtcer pumpkin vine that gave me I 

 don't know how many fine pumpkins. 



