LAKGE BLOOMS 
tities, as compared with the bulky natural manures. 
In the South a generation and a half ago cotton seed 
meal, which is very rich in nitrogen, was mixed with a 
high grade of phosphate and was almost the only fer- 
tilizer used by market gardeners around Charleston 
and Savannah. Florists today find this combination 
a "trade secret" for heightening the color of geranium 
blooms. 
The advantages of a soil well supplied with bulky 
plant food are many. Manure, and compost in the 
form of leaf mold, rotted sods, fibrous loam, and gen- 
erous additions of bone meal, meet all plant require- 
ments, and what is very important, keep the soil in an 
open, friable condition and hold moisture. The so- 
necessary admittance of air to the soil is also made 
possible. 
One hundred pounds of leaves from hard wood 
trees are worth fifty-six cents as fertilizer. If burned, 
the ashes would contain some fertilizing material but 
in a form that would wash out of the soil, while the 
immensely important humus of decayed leaves (leaf 
mould) would be lost. This leaf -mold humus is almost 
as valuable as the mineral elements (potash etc.) con- 
tained in the leaves. 
The more freely blooms are produced, by nature, 
or through forcing, the smaller the tubers will be. This 
is why some of the "latest creations" in dahlias, superb 
and wonderful in bloom, can hardly be carried through 
