48 How TO Grow Cut Flowers. 



practically worthless. It was at this stage that 1 found 

 myself so hungry for the essay already alluded to. 



Visits to eastern growers made about this time, re- 

 vealed the fact that some of them were unable to gJ'Ow 

 Perle, while other varieties which failed With me, grew 

 there to perfection. 



A careful examination and comparison of soils 

 showed theirs to be much firmer and heavier than 

 mine, with a stiff subsoil, through which there was no 

 apparent mixture of sand. This convinced me that 

 herein lay the Secret of my failure and their success, 

 but how to supply the needed soil was a knotty prob- 

 lem. 



One summer day a short time previous to this, while 

 visiting a brother florist, my attention was called to a 

 magnificent growth of roses, as well as to the peculiar 

 character of the soil in which they were planted. In- 

 quiry elicited the fact, that being out of sod soil, the 

 thought had occurred to him to try a gravelly paste 

 which was found ten feet below the surface. He had 

 discovered this in a bank he was excavating close by in 

 order to make room for another house. No fertilizing 

 material was added, and still the luxuriance of foliage 

 was astonishing. So impressed was I with these re- 

 sults that I took a sample of the soil home with me, and 

 called the attention of my foreman to its peculiar char- 

 acter. Not long after, he brought me one day a soil of 

 similar texture found on our own premises, and upon. 



