STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. IO9 



I want to say just a word about carnations too. I think many 

 of you don't know what an easy flower the carnation is to raise. 

 I have now carnations in my garden that have been there for 

 three years and have never been touched and they blossomed this 

 summer just as freely. I get my seeds, perhaps a package of 

 ten cent Marguerite carnations, and when they are in blossom, 

 if you give them proper care or good earth which is about all 

 they need, you will find the blossoms just as beautiful as those 

 you can find at the hothouse. I plant my seed in boxes of soft 

 earth in the house ; then we have a little hotbed out of doors 

 which we prepare in the fall, my boy and I — it is an easy matter, 

 you know the preparation of a hotbed so I won't speak of that. 

 We prepare it in the fall and have it covered up with our sashes. 

 In the spring when it becomes warm enough, oftentimes before 

 the snow is oflf of the ground, when our boxes in the house get 

 too full of the pinks and asters and pansies and things that we 

 raise," we set them out in this hot bed. The only thing you have 

 to be careful about is, don't keep your sashes covered too tight 

 in the day time when the sun shines so that your plants will be 

 burned up, and at night be careful to throw something over 

 them. My carnations that I plant in the house I usually plant 

 in lines ; when they are large enough I transplant them to boxes ; 

 when my boxes get too many I transplant them to the hotbed. 

 They are put out into the ground in the summer and in the early 

 fall my carnations begin to blossom and during the winter I do 

 not even have to cover them. Perhaps if you have an exposed 

 place you might put a little over them. The next spring my 

 carnations are there, almost as soon as the snow is ofif of the 

 ground, green and healthy and ready to go to blossoming. A 

 year ago this last year I se'c out 57 new carnations and I think 

 I shall not exaggerate if I say that last July I had hundreds of 

 blossoms on my carnation bed, of all varieties, besides the buds 

 and half open flowers. And it gave me no trouble at all. I 

 never have had any trouble in raising them. This year I set 

 about 125 aster plants. There has been some trouble lately 

 from the aster turning yellow and dying. There is no way to 

 obviate that. Plant a few more plants so you won't miss losing 

 them. Plant them in diflFerent places. If you plant them in the 

 same place year after year, you will find that this little insect 

 stavs in the ground and will kill your plants in spite of you. So 



