CARRYING OVER FOR A SECOND YEAR II3 



is the baking and cracking of the soil if it contains much 

 clay, and where this happens it means a great deal more 

 work in cultivating by hand, as against using an implement 

 out of doors. A ridge or elevation of the soil may be left 

 between the rows, which affords a sort of catchment for the 

 water and prevents it running over the surface of the 

 entire bed. The ventilators should be left open night and 

 day until the temperature gets down to 40 degrees at night, 

 which keeps the plants healthy, and by the second week in 

 September blooms can be had. 



Plants for Blooming More Than One Year 



In the cooler sections of the country, as Maine and the 

 Northwest, carrying the bench plants over a second year and 

 flowering them is a well-known practice, and is successful. 

 It is also frequently done in European establishments. 

 The common objection is that the old plants are apt to get 

 attacked with red spider, to get lanky, with many dead 

 leaves, and the flowers are inferior the second year. 



Some years ago a Chicago firm tried the experiment of 

 cutting back the plants and carrying them over for the 

 second year. The results were described by Mr. A. T. 

 Pyfer in part, as follows:* 



This is a very difficult matter to handle, and it will 

 not pay the ordinary small grower to sacrifice his blooms in 

 the Spring in order to cut back the plants. We have experi- 

 mented mostly on plants we have used for cutting purposes, 

 especially new varieties or varieties of which the cuttings 

 have been greatly in demand, so it was not necessary for us 



* Proceedings of the American Carnation Society for 1914. 



