16 * HAND-BOOK OF PBACTICAL 



apart each way, setting the btdb in clean sand and covering 

 about three inches deep. 



We have been at one time particularly observant of two beds 

 of Japan lilies in a neighbor's garden, — one growing in the 

 ordinary open exposed garden bed, the other planted among 

 some rock work on the north side of the house. The first 

 blooms a few days the earliest, but the flowers are soon gone, 

 while the latter continues in bloom nearly six weeks. 



This 'is a significant hint to planters of hardy bulbs, as it 

 means that the latter bed has moisture and depth for the roots, 

 sustaining their gj-owth for a long period, while the former, by 

 reason of open exposure, are enhanced perhaps in period of 

 blooms, but frcim the heat are brought rapidly to maturity. 

 Planters of lilies, therefore, should, in order to have abundant 

 and long continued blooms, dig the ground very deep, and in 

 spring, or just before blooming time, shield the surface by a 

 light surface mulching. 



Hoil for Lilies. — In the ordinary prepared soils of eight inches 

 deep, for the Japan lilies, the growth of flower stems varies froA 

 eighteen inches to two feet in height ; but where the ground is 

 prepared some eighteen inches deep, of rich soil^and drained, the 

 flower stems rise to four and five feet, and with proportionate 

 increase of flowers. Lilium auratum has been grown with stems 

 nine feet high, and having nineteen perfect flowers upon it, 

 some of which have measured one foot in diameter. 



Hoe with tJie Sake. — This may be an Irishman's advice, but we 

 have found great advaniage in the use of an iron tooth rake or 

 toothed hoe during the early cultivation of all garden crops. 

 We go over our beets, parsnips, peas, beans, etc., with a twelve 

 tooth steel rake as soon as they show sign of coming above 

 ground. For potatoes, corn, and for working among raspberries 

 and other small fruits, and for stirring the surface earth around 

 dwarf pears and recently planted trees, we use a four-pronged 

 hook or hoe, with which a man will perform nearly or quite one 

 sixth more work in a day, destroy the weeds, and leave the 

 ground always light, loose and even. 



