92 AMERICAN CARNATION CULTURE. 



Thoroughly mix, and dissolve one pound in sixteen gallons 

 of water and use two gallons to a square yard of bench surface 

 every two weeks. 



Mulching carnation beds is esteemed by some as a valuable 

 mode of fertilizing the soil. Well rotted, finely sifted manure 

 makes a good mulch. 



All liquid food as a stimulus for plants should be used weak 

 and often, rather than strong and infrequently. Since the intro- 

 duction of carnations there is no record of showers of quails and 

 manna, or liquid phosphate and nitrogen. A successful grower 

 uses the following fertilizing formula: .- . 



Sheep manure i peck. 



Nitrate of Soda 2 quarts. 



Cow manure. 3 pecks. 



Water , 50 gallons. 



Mix and apply on the benches moderately every two weeks. 



The physiology of a carnation plant is to send its feeding 

 rootlets toward the surface for its supply of nourishment. The 

 carnation grower that mulches with sheep, cow or well rotted 

 stable manure, and judiciously uses on the surface fine ground 

 bone, and Prof. Weyman's fertilizing formula, can depend upon 

 acting in harmony with the plant's nature, and in furnishing it 

 with the most healthful and essential food nutrients. 



Growers are given to puting too highly enriched soil in the 

 start on the benches, avoiding this error, there is epitomized in 

 this chapter the essence of all that is known, or will be known, 

 relative to carnation fertilization. But the last word has never 

 yet been said on any subject; nature enjoins "Finis" being 

 written in any volume of her unfolding scriptures. 



Dianthus Superba, that has been evolved, requires more 

 moisture and humus and less mineral elements for nutriment, 

 than Dianthus Semperflorens. 



