ANNUALS AND THEIR CULTIVATION. 125 



Cultivation. I know very well that I shall tell you little beyond 

 what you already know ; but having accepted their kind invitation 

 it only remains for me to bespeak your patience while I tell you 

 what little I have learned pertaining to this subject. 



Success in the cultivation of any flower, fruit, or vegetable will 

 be in direct proportion to the care and labor bestowed upon the soil 

 for the reception of the seed or plant. Therefore in the fall, as soon 

 as a few severe frosts have stripped the flower beds of their beauty, 

 I clear the surface of the beds, and thoroughly trench the soil to 

 the depth of twelve inches ; eighteen inches would be better, but 

 my soil does not average over twelve inches of loam before a 

 gravelly subsoil is reached. The ground having been thoroughly 

 loosened, well decomposed barn-yard manure is applied at the 

 rate of from twenty to twenty-five cords per acre, and turned under 

 one spade deep. Nothing more is done until spring ; when the 

 ground is again trenched as before, and a small quantity of some 

 good chemical fertilizer is spread broadcast. The surface of the 

 beds is then raked smooth and fine, and the preparation of tlie soil 

 is complete. My largest flowerbed is two hundred feet long by six- 

 teen feet wide, and faces the south. At the back of the bed is a 

 high board fence, which shelters the flowers from the north winds ; 

 around the sides and front of the bed there is an open lath fence, 

 with gates at convenient distances ; and at every twenty feet are 

 division fences six feet in height, to break the force of the wind 

 coming either from the east or from the west. 



I have spoken thus minutely about this bed, as on account of its 

 ample protection from the winds I consider it the most desirable 

 bed on my place, and I look to it for my best flowers ; and wish to 

 emphasize the desirableness of protection from wind for flower 

 beds. I have never grown a large variety of annuals, but have 

 selected a few such as appeared to me to deserve s[>ecial atten- 

 tion, and have tried to grow those few varieties to something like 

 perfection, and to this end have devoted the largest part of my 

 leisure hours for the past five years to the cultivation of Asters, 

 Sweet Peas, Tropseoiums, and Pansies ; and I believe there is a 

 future for these four flowers that will far exceed the expectations 

 of the most enthusiastic cultivator of annuals. 



Of course, botanicall}' speaking, Pansies are not strictly An- 

 nuals, but since they are largely grown as such, and were allowed 

 by this Society, last season, to form part of an exhibit competing for 



