58 MARKET NURSERY WORK 



a great many of the varieties would suffer badly in the quality 

 of its blooms hence it becomes necessary at an early stage 

 in the growth of the plants to go over them with a knife and 

 remove all superfluous shoots. 



We will assume that it is now autumn. Michaelmas Day has 

 passed and gone, and the time for early frosts is upon us. The 

 houses to which the chrysanthemums have to be transferred 

 must be cleared and cleaned, making sacrifice, if need be, of the 

 tomatoes or cucumbers still unfinished. It would be very 

 unwise to expose the whole chrysanthemum crop to disaster 

 for the sake of the tailings of the preceding crops. 



A week or ten days ago a man was sent among the chrysanthe- 

 mums with a spade, and his duty was to cut deeply around each 

 plant, completely severing the spreading roots, and by a movement 

 of the spade to press the soil back upon the plant and leave a 

 solid square mass. Leaving the under roots to carry on with, 

 the plants scarcely felt this operation as a check, but it left the 

 roots in a far better position to stand the transplanting, for new 

 roots are already fastening upon and consolidating the pressed 

 soil. 



In lifting, we cut the under roots with the spade and raise the 

 whole body, roots and soil, careful as far as possible to preserve 

 it intact. Barrowing them, and again carefully handling, we 

 replant them in the inside borders, leaving just a little space 

 for air and light between them. A good watering is at once 

 given to consolidate the earth around them, and if the sun is 

 bright and hot a partial shading is given for three days. Only 

 a little air is admitted during that short period, but directly 

 we find that the roots are beginning to move the ventilators 

 are thrown wide open by day and only partly closed at night. 

 It is the aim of the 'mum grower to retard his flowers as long as 

 possible, for as a rule the later they are the more they increase 

 in value. 



It is not merely for the purpose of opening their flowers 

 secure from frost that these chrysanthemums are housed, but 

 to complete their growth, therefore they must be encouraged to 

 establish themselves and feel quite at home in their new quarters, 

 and this they can never do if they are dumped in as thickly 



