gating do not let the ground dry out hard at any time 

 from the time the tuber is put into the ground until 

 you desire to have them stop blooming. In heavy soil, 

 cultivation usually follows on the second day after 

 watering. Use a three or five prong hand cultivator. 

 Having planted your tubers four inches deep, you can 

 safely cultivate to a depth of two inches. 



When they commence to bloom, plant food is taken 

 up very fast. Work in a teacupful of bone meal to 

 each plant about once in every six or eight weeks. If 

 you have chickens, make liquid manure from their 

 droppings and apply after irrigating. You can add 

 along with it a tablespoonful of domestic ammonia to 

 each gallon of water or liquid. Apply from one to two 

 quarts to each plant. 



Liquid chicken, sheep or goat manure is very strong 

 and must be well diluted. A receptacle filled one- 

 quarter full of manure and then filled with water, 

 should be diluted four times more before applying. 

 It should be made up 24 to 48 hours before applying. 



I rely on the liquid sheep manure and the ammonia, 

 once a week during the blooming season. I irrigate 

 every five to six days. As soil conditions vary so, 

 there cannot be any set rules in these things, each 

 and every one having to work out these problems 

 from their own experience and observations. If you 

 do not care to cultivate the ground the entire season, 

 you can, when the Dahlias begin to bloom, mulch with 

 coarse horse manure using care to keep the manure 

 at least two inches away from the Dahlia stock, as it 

 would harbor aphis, which would soon destroy the 

 plant. Dahlias can be grown to a very large size by 

 dis-budding, only allowing a few blooms to the plant. 

 In the summer time when the days are long, and there 

 are no fogs it is of great benefit to the Dahlias to give 

 them an overhead spraying in the morning before the 



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