100 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



years, except to be repotted. They are placed out doors after 

 blooming, as soon as can be done with safety, and in August such 

 as need it are repotted and others are top dressed. They are only 

 exposed to frost enough to take off the leaves. 



Mr. Buswell said that the point which he desired to ascertain 

 was whether hardy plants would not give more satisfactory results 

 when forced, if first subjected to such treatment in regard to 

 freezing as nature gives them. 



Mr. Hovey thought that they would not. His plants begin to 

 lose their leaves early in September, and often have lost all their 

 foliage before severe frost. He would not subject them to frost 

 were it not to keep them back. Perhaps some of them got frozen 

 through, though he took especial pains that they should not, by 

 throwing a few leaves over them, as freezing hard would break the 

 pots, but he saw no difierence among them which he could attri- 

 bute to freezing. He never put a plant into the house that to Ms 

 knowledge had not been exposed to frost at all, but thought it 

 would neither injure nor benefit them. 



Mr. Buswell was still of the opinion that plants would force 

 better if we could supply all the conditions under which they 

 naturall}^ grow. 



Mr. Wilder thought frost for the tops was advantageous because 

 it puts the plants to rest. 



Mr. Buswell said that there was more or less activity in the sap 

 in the roots of plants even when frozen, and asked whether the 

 activity might not be so great, when not frozen, as to interfere 

 with forcing. 



Mr. Atkinson did not believe in frost ; he took up all his plants 

 while still in foliage, and syringed. Possibly they might have 

 got some frost. Every year as soon as they had ceased flowering 

 he took care to remove all the old wood. 



The Chairman said that no gentleman had taken the position 

 that frost is absolutely necessary. In a cold climate, snow falls 

 early and the ground is not frozen. Yet it seemed to him that 

 there vs^as an advantage in a* moderate frost. It is a method 

 provided by nature for ripening the wood. We are obliged to 

 work in a short time, and the slight freezing gives us the desired 

 effect. He was engaged in some experiments which he hoped 

 would enable him to pronounce a positive judgment on the point. 

 He had taken plants that had been forced, and by artificial means 



