288 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
The preparation of the soil is an important matter, particularly if 
they are to be grown in quantity for cutting. Very deep digging or 
bastard trenching during the winter or early spring is a good plan to 
adopt, doing this sufficiently early to allow the soil to become 
ameliorated by the action of the weather and to consolidate slightly. 
The amount of manure to be added should naturally be varied 
according to the nature of the soil, but rarely should it be necessary 
to dress the ground heavily with fresh manure. 
In private places where batches of plants are grown for cutting 
in the kitchen garden, or borders adjacent thereto, and which may 
have been well manured for previous crops, little or no manure 
should be given, as I have found that plants which grow away very 
freely in the early stages do not produce such good quality bloom as 
those grown more steadily and well fed after the appearance of the 
flower-buds. 
Stations that are reserved for Chrysanthemums in the herbaceous 
borders may be rather more liberally treated, as the permanent occu- 
pants of the borders will naturally take a good deal of the nourishment 
out before the Chrysanthemum roots get well hold. 
It must not be inferred, however, that Chrysanthemums will give 
the best results from an impoverished soil. They will not ! A well- 
worked soil not too rich in nitrogenous manure, which will give good 
steady growth from the outset, is far the best, and it is much easier 
and less wasteful to add or give manure later in the season than to 
try to check the growth of plants which are making far too much 
soft wood through a superabundance of manure at the outset. 
When the plants are being grown for lifting and transferring to 
flower-beds in the early autumn, the soil should be such as will produce 
plenty of fibrous roots, and if it is not naturally fairly light the addition 
of leaf soil, spent hops, or old mushroom-bed manure will help it in 
this direction ; a good autumn display might easily be spoilt if — when 
lifting — the roots come up without a good ball of soil. 
The date of planting will vary a little in different localities and 
seasons ; it may be safe to plant the first week in May or even a little 
earlier on moderately light soil and in a warm neighbourhood, but 
when the soil is heavier and the locality subject to late frosts it may 
be necessary to defer it to the third or last week in the month, and 
though some varieties, if well hardened, will stand a little frost, there 
are others which suffer considerably, and so it is not wise to take 
too many risks. 
Firm planting is essential, and it is detrimental to plant when 
the soil is in a wet condition, the plants getting away much quicker 
when it is nice and friable. 
The distance they should be planted apart will depend somewhat 
on the varieties. Pompons may only require from eighteen to twenty- 
four inches each way, and in light soil even less, but the stronger- 
growing Japanese type should be from two to three feet apart, a 
good plan being to plant in double mws two feet apart and two 
