100 THE CHRYSANTHEMUM 



tionably the best covering is a thin layer of very fine, 

 clean sand, because of the minute size of most Chrysan- 

 themum seeds. 



WATERING 



Have a pot of water standing by the seed box or 

 pots, whichever is used, and in it a Scollay's gum 

 sprinkler, so that a mist of water may be given when- 

 ever there is any appearance of drying. To let Chrysan- 

 themum seed go dry after it has made an effort to 

 germinate will certainly cause the tiny germ to die. 



It is on record that out of thirty-five seedling 

 Chrysanthemums carefully bred by one expert, three 

 varieties were selected. These three sorts netted the 

 raiser over $6000 from their sale the following year. 

 Take another example the same person, at a subse- 

 quent date, sent to California and had grown for him 

 several hundred of the latest and finest varieties of 

 Chrysanthemums, thinking that by natural causes, or 

 through insect agency, enough of the flowers would 

 become pollinated to give some high grade seed. Seed 

 in quantity was returned, 6000 germinated, some 

 5000 were flowered, and, as a result of all this labor 

 and time expended, less than twelve were eventually 

 selected, and only three were graded as distinct and good 

 enough to merit names, and not one out of the whole 

 lot ever made a permanent place for itself. Seedling 

 raising is far from being an exact science! 



After all the details given above, the reader and 

 would-be raiser of seedling Chrysanthemums will ask: 

 "Does it pay to go to all this trouble and bother?" 

 and in spite of failures and in the face of ridiculously 

 low percentages of success, the enthusiast will look his 

 questioner straight in the eye and reply: "It does!"' 



