52 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



until the soil is well wanned, aiul the flowers will not open earlier 

 than if planting had been deferred for a month. Unless the month 

 of I^Iay is likel}' to be so taken up that time cannot then be spared, 

 I should not advise April planting. M3' own practice is to plant 

 between the tenth and fifteenth of Ma}'. 



The best soil for the gladiolus is a well drained loam, better 

 light than heavy, for I have observed that where the rows have ex- 

 tended into moist land the bulbs there planted have neither blos- 

 somed nor grown as well as they should have done ; and that the 

 bulbs have been smaller when taken up than the}' were when 

 planted. The plants will not be likcl}' to suffer from dry weather, 

 however light the soil may be. Three 3'ears ago the drought was 

 of unprecedented severity in Canton, so that from about five hun- 

 dred plants of dahlias I had onl}- one flower, but the gladioli, 

 growing in the same field, bloomed as well as ever. The soil, 

 whatever its nature, must be well loosened and pulverized if the 

 best results are to be attained. I used formerly to grow a few glad- 

 ioli in my flower garden, where the only way of loosening the earth 

 was by the spade or digging fork, but I soon found that they were far 

 behind those planted in ploughed land ; so that now all are grown 

 side by side with corn and i)otatoes and please me much better 

 than they ever did before. 



The fertilizer I have found best is that sold by the Bowkcr Com- 

 pany for root crops. The furrows having been made with the plow, 

 thirty inches apart, the fertilizer is sprinkled therein at the rate of 

 a gill to about twelve feet of the row. I use none at all except in 

 the row, because 1 do not believe that the roots extend more than 

 five inches in each direction. The bulbs are put as nearly four 

 inches apart as I can easily do it. I drop them from a basket or a 

 box as 1 walk along the row, there being no need of stooping to 

 put them in place because, the earth being soft and loose, they stay 

 where they strike, and seldom roll. It makes no difference how they 

 lie. I have examined the subject carefully bj' experiment, and 

 find that if the bulbs are laid with their tops down and the base 

 up they will come up as soon, blossom as well, and make as good 

 bulbs for next year's planting as if they had been placed with the 

 toi)s uppermost. It is very fortunate that such is tiic case, for it 

 would he a most irksome task to plant a large number if each had 

 to be carelully put in place ; whereas it is easily done by taking a 

 half-bushcl basket full on one arm and drc)pping them with the 

 other hand as you walk along. 



