CHRYSANTHEMUMS FOR THE SOUTH 115 



greenhouse where Chrysanthemums are grown for sale. 

 This condition is largely due to the many trials in the 

 past, where their best efforts have been failures for want 

 of the proper type. 



As to treatment, it is simple, but do not be deluded 

 with the idea that a first-class Chrysanthemum can be 

 grown in the South without the protection of glass. 

 Surely not to give it heat, but protection from rain and 

 wind it feust have. It is true the sides may be only of 

 canvas, and here we may obtain our ventilation, but 

 we must be able to make the house perfectly close in 

 order to combat insects and keep out storm winds. My 

 experience has been that solid beds are better than 

 benches, for the reason that they do not dry out so fast, 

 and we can better risk keeping them a little on the dry 

 side as a protection against mealy bugs. Of course, 

 perfect drainage must be given, for which purpose I 

 have used coarse gravel with the best results. It would 

 be suicidal to use any wood in the construction of the 

 beds or even as plant stakes, as white ants, or wood lice, 

 as we know them, are sure to appear about the time 

 your plants look the most promising. These wood lice 

 are only second to the corythuca in point of destruc- 

 tiveness. 



I should advise all growers who are ambitious to 

 achieve success in the South to shun commercial 

 fertilizers. I know of one grower who has been quite 

 successful with liquid manure made from cotton seed 

 meal rotted in water for sixty days and used very much 

 diluted, but I take my chances with a heavy mulch of 

 rotted sweepings from the cow lot, having first given 

 the beds a light dusting of bone meal, and then trust 

 to ample nourishment at flowering time from copious 

 watering, this being too late to give much encourage- 

 ment to the mealy bugs. 



