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LXIX. On the Cultivation of Pinks. In a Letter to the 

 Secretary. By Mr. Thomas Hogg. 



Read August 7, 1821. 



Sir, 



I feel obliged to you for the favourable opinion you were 

 pleased to express of the few specimens of Pink Blooms 

 which I had the honour to exhibit at a late meeting of the 

 Horticultural Society. The health of the plants, and the 

 beauty of the blossoms, I attribute mainly to the mode of 

 cultivation which I pursued with respect to them ; a brief 

 account of which I now subjoin, hoping, though the subject 

 matter be trifling and unimportant in itself, that it will afford 

 some gratification to those members of the Society who are 

 fond of flowers, and who feel pleasure in the admiration, at 

 least, if not in the cultivation of them. 



I formed my Pink beds and planted them about the middle 

 of October ; they were raised six inches above the alleys, to 

 enable the heavy rains to pass off during the winter. The 

 soil consisted of a sandy loam, or, more correctly speaking, 

 of a commixture of yellowish loam, common black garden 

 mould road grit taken from the entrance to the Paddington 

 pond, washed before it was used, and a good portion of 

 rotten horse dung, well incorporated, with a good bottom of 

 dung from the cucumber pits : added to which, I top- 

 dressed the beds in the beginning of May, after weeding 

 and lightly hoeing the surface, with nearly an inch thick of 



