THE TULIP FANCY. 
537 
from its own ashes ; it is like many other 
subjects in the vegetable kingdom, wanting an 
occasional change. If those who grow them 
and who would be the first to condemn a 
farmer for the same continuance of cropping 
from one stock, would give the thing a 
moment's consideration, they would see the 
propriety of exchanging with some neighbour, 
or sending half their stock to be grown some- 
where else. We have seen the finest collection 
in the country, comprising the newest and 
best of the day, grown five years in the same 
bed, and gradually give less bloom and smaller 
flowers till they were the most deplorable 
mass, and we had the lot for a song. We had 
but few blooms the first year, but took up 
full-sized roots, and the next year they were 
splendid. So much for the belief that change 
of air and climate would not restore them. 
But we think it quite possible that the con- 
stitution maybe so completely destroyed as to 
be past recovering ; but we are not going to 
lose sight of what destroyed it. There was 
a notion among the potato growers, or rather 
those who wrote about them, that the potato 
had degenerated, and there w r as a very simple 
way of proving it. We went no farther than 
Hungerford Market, and found we could buy 
the old Ox-noble, the old Champion, and 
other old sorts, as pure and as fine as ever 
they were ; but where people had continued to 
grow the same sort upon the same ground 
year after year, they had unquestionably 
degenerated, and there were too many who 
had done this, especially in Ireland. Why, it 
stands to reason, as well as it is borne out by 
facts, that all our florists who continue propa- 
gating from the same stock and growing in 
the same place are wrong. If they wish to 
convince themselves, let them choose any sub- 
ject, and name any variety that has gone back 
with them, and buy that variety in from a 
distance ; they will find that it will be greatly 
superior to their own, and this alone ought 
to convince them that there is nothing like 
change of air and change of soil for the health 
of plants. We feel perfectly assured that 
many a devotee to floriculture has given up 
one subject after another because they could 
not grow them to their satisfaction, when 
they ought only to have changed their plants 
or roots. Numbers have given up good 
varieties of the Dahlia for the same reason ; 
and we wish we could sufficiently impress 
upon the minds of all persons the necessity of 
changing their plants occasionally with some 
one at a distance ; not the plants of one sub- 
ject merely, but of everything. Nurserymen 
are always chopping and changing plants 
about, and every one they send out is of 
course changed, so that we do not find their 
stock degenerate much, but even among those 
there are frequent exchanges made, on pur- 
pose to avoid the natural tendency of plants 
10 get tired of a place and degenerate there, 
although it would be healthy and perfect in 
other hands. It would be wise of every 
amateur to be in communication with distant 
growers of the same things as they themselves 
cultivate, and to make as regular a rule for 
an interchange of some things, as they do of 
planting at the proper seasons. H they had 
to pay for it in quantity or in money, their 
home stock would always be the more healthy 
for it. An amateur auricula grower cannot 
do better than send all his offsets to a grower 
for sale, and receive back an equivalent in 
good plants. It is an excellent way of keeping 
a stock of strong plants without taking the 
trouble and occupying the room that is neces- 
sary for the rearing of the offsets, and with 
the advantage too of the necessary change. 
We feel quite certain that the plants had in 
from a distance will bloom better than others 
of the same size and strength that have been 
two or three years with him ; and it was the 
advisableness of these exchanges that moved 
the florists of the last century to make the 
rule in auricula showing, that a man shall 
have had his plants in his possession as well 
as being his own property, six weeks before 
each show ; for it allows a man to buy, sell, or 
exchange, up to the end of February, at which 
period you can see which plants are likely to 
flower well, and which will not. Many plants 
have to be in possession three months before 
the show. From all we have said, the reader 
will observe that to do any real good with 
plants, — that is to say, to excel in their growth, 
they must make changes. 
THE TULIP FANCY. 
The machinery, as one might call it, neces- 
sary to grow and flower the tulip, will deter 
many from growing a bed of these brilliant 
flowers ; but those who remember what a gay 
appearance even the border tulips maintain 
for a fortnight or three weeks, will be readily 
made to understand that a young beginner 
may grow his bed wholly exposed to the 
weather, and all the penalty he pays is a 
shorter period of bloom ; but he is in the 
mean time rewarded by the increase of his 
stock, and the general health of his bulbs, for 
it frequently happens that the exposed tulips 
increase the best and maintain their health 
well. We do not recommend those who can 
afford the room and the means to erect a 
proper stage and use proper cloths, to make 
any kind of shift without them ; but we do 
recommend him who cannot afford either, to 
nevertheless grow a bed of tulips, because his 
