A MATTER OF MARKET. 57 



other kinds start profusely axillary stems. The plant is incapable 

 of maturing all the buds that are thus projected into salable flowers. 

 Disbudding is merely a species of pruning, and should be done as 

 soon as the lateral buds begin to develop on the cane. It diverts 

 the flow of the plant's blood from many buds into one or a few, 

 thus increasing the size of the flower, the substance of its petals, 

 the length of the stem, its value in the market, conserves the vigor 

 of the plant, and builds up the florist's reputation for good stock. 



The last analysis of a carnation flower with a florist is "How 

 much money is there in it ?" He deals in poetry, but his trade is 

 prose. The question with him is whether he can get as much 

 money for one high grade carnation bloom as he can for half a 

 dozen poor ones. Disbudding is a matter of market. 



There are always three grades of carnation flowers, poor ones 

 that no one wants, good ones that everybody buys, fine ones that 

 everybody adores and money purchases. 



There is not as much waste by the process of disbudding as 

 one might superficially suppose. It wonderfully preserves the vigor 

 of the plant, its capacity for a renewal of stems and flowers, and 

 its vitality is retained to repeat florescence. All vegetable physi- 

 ologists are aware that the only aim of a plant's life is to perpetuate 

 itself in vital seeds. When this is done its life-mission is ended, 

 the culmination of its vital forces is reached in elaborating pro- 

 tein compounds and crystalizing them into seeds as nutriment for 

 its embryonic progeny. If a carnation plant is early disbudded, this 

 crucial period of its life is partially relieved and its energies 

 prolonged An initial bud, with all its parts, is yet but imper- 

 fectly modified leaves. Experiments have been made as to the 

 probable extent to which the remaining buds and their unfolded 

 petals are benefitted on a healthy plant by judicious disbudding. 

 It will increase the diameter of the crown flower one inch and 

 the terminal flower half an inch. 



