STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 45 



it is necessary to have good soil, rieli, fine and mellow. If we can't 

 have just such as we would, however, we should make the best of 

 such as we can get. Even poor soil can be worked over, pulverized 

 and enriched till the waste places may be made to blossom like the 

 rose. 



Thorough preparation of the soil in spring is necessar}-. It must 

 be spaded deep and well woiked over or many of the best elements 

 will be of little or no use to the growing plants. 



Another essential is plenty of room. Don't try to crowd all 

 kinds into a quarter of an acre of ground. Have the size and quality 

 of your plot in mind when deciding wiiat and how many kinds you 

 will try to raise. Good seed is, if pos.sible, more important than good 

 soil. If we hope for the best of plants and fruits we shoukl be sure 

 that all seed used is from the best varieties of thrifty [)lants, ripe, 

 fresh and pure. The best that can be obtained is none too good and 

 is cheapest at whatever cost. 



Don't hurry. To be sure some plants shonld be started early, 

 especially if we want green peas for dinner on the Fourth of July, or 

 the full beauty of our asters befoie the carh- frosts. Most seed 

 must, however, be sown in dry, warm soil, or it will never gei ininate. 



When the ground is read}' and the seed sown our work is but just 

 begun. For a time, to be sure, we can only wait as patientlv as 

 may be for the tin}- shoots, l:)ut with those for whicli we are watcliin'i' 

 we shall undoubtedly find gi'owing many more that we did not sow 

 and do not want. Tiresome is the work of weeding, but tii-eless 

 must be the weeder if he liopes for success. Do this as yon should 

 do eveiytiiing, thorovgldy. Pull up by the root and uttei'ly destroy 

 every weed as you find it. To break or cut them off witli the hoe 

 simp!}- makes them grow better. To pull them up and leave them 

 to die on the ground will, like transplanting desirable plants, make 

 them thrive. If we think that we have destroyed every one to-day, 

 careful eyes will find at least one more to-morrow, and here as in all 

 the work of life we shall find that ''Eternal vigilence is the price of 

 success." 



If all here present are not gardeners in the usual acceptance of 

 the term, they are in a mucii higher sense. Our minds and characters 

 are gardens in which each one is in great measure responsible for his 

 own failure or success. The soil is prepared for us in early ciiildhood 

 and much of the seed sown. Shielding a child too carefully from 

 trouble is like smoothing the top of the soil in the other garden and 



