OF THE DAHLIA 
torrid days. The great labor of flower production has 
not been taken up. Autumn comes with invigorating 
coolness, the plants begin to bloom, as if sharing their 
grower's enthusiasms and ambitions, and they keep it 
up until Jack Frost ends the color harmonies with a 
suddenness that is always too soon. 
The work put upon dahlia plants by their profuse 
flower production is tremendous, and the top fertilizing 
at blooming time, practiced by skillful growers, is 
designed to meet the plant's requirements. Yet it is 
believed that foliage and tubers exhaust the plant even 
more. 
Of course, if one plants at all extensively, he should 
start the late-flowering varieties fairly early, and the 
early blooming sorts later. The fortunate possessor of 
land enough and dahlias enough can plant "early and 
often" and have a succession of blooming. If some 
plants fall scorched by the wayside in August their 
loss can be borne with a certain resignation. 
In sections like the northern parts of the New Eng- 
land States, Central and northern New York, where 
killing frosts often come late in August, certainly early 
in September, dahlias must be planted much earlier in 
the spring, in some sections as soon as it is safe to do 
so. Inasmuch as twenty days are required for the 
sprout of the six inch deep tuber to reach the surface, 
planting can be done before the last spring frost has 
passed, if it is necessary, where the growing season is 
