decidedly more vigorous, clean young 
plants, is to grow propagating stock in 
the open field during the summer. This 
treatment will usually, in one season, 
restore enough native vigor to free the 
plants of midge, which spreads disas¬ 
trously under glass. In propagating 
young stock for this purpose, use short- 
jointed cuttings, such as have plenty 
of eyes from which to break. Cuttings 
without eyes at the base or below the 
soil will, of course, be unproductive of 
growth for propagating. Cuttings with 
a single eye can be used, but not, of 
course, for propagating. 
Another point in producing normally 
hard cuttings, such as will not be swept 
away with rot in the sand, is the use 
of a shallow raised bed in a light house 
for stock plants. A deep ground bed 
of old soil that does not drain promptly 
is responsible for stock plants’ fre¬ 
quently turning yellow and rotting out. 
Wintering them under benches with 
little attention often accounts for the 
active demand for young stock around 
planting time. 
The necessary and rather costly care 
of stock plants raises the question of 
whether or not it pays the grower, es¬ 
pecially one whose planting is limited, 
to do his own propagating. When prop¬ 
erly cared for, stock plants occupy 
valuable space all winter, and kept 
clean of insects, particularly midge, 
they represent a substantial cost. And 
there are frequent losses in the sand 
and much time used in propagating 
during the busy spring months when 
the value of time is at its height. Ac¬ 
curate cost figures on rooted cuttings 
are sometimes surprising when all costs 
are accounted for. In our records the 
costs per cutting usually run close to 
2 cents, and with much rotting in the 
sand, they might run higher. When 
this work is carried out on a large 
scale with a competent man responsible 
for it, this figure can be reduced some¬ 
what. But the fact that costs increase 
in producing smaller quantities is un¬ 
deniable. Swapping stock plants with 
neighbors is an excellent plan of ex¬ 
changing soil disease and insects. 
Watch for the possibilities involved in 
this. 
The life of any line of business de¬ 
pends on the stimulation of variety. 
How well we are daily reminded of it! 
Our business is no exception to this 
reaction to change. There is plenty 
of appealing chrysanthemum variety 
among recent novelties, and how neces¬ 
sary it is to keep up with them! 
Small-flowered Class. 
Outstanding improvements in the 
small-flowered class explain its as¬ 
cendancy the past few seasons and this 
will increase with the vitalizing influ¬ 
ence of the Koreans. 
The new Bristol variety, Glow, is a 
medium-size bronze with a glowing 
orange suffusion. It will make a hit 
and be right for Thanksgiving. Fez 
improves New York in size, is about a 
week later and holds its color better. 
Yellow New York is a choice, midsea¬ 
son yellow button. Last season’s Prince¬ 
ton, a deep golden yellow, shaded 
orange, has taken well. For late Sep¬ 
tember flowering with black cloth, do 
not overlook Nuggets and Pink Dot. 
Dream, a semidouble, long-stemmed 
flesh pink, is choice to get in about 
October 1 or its natural season, early 
November. 
Taking in the fall shows is necessary 
for one to appreciate the recent ad¬ 
vances in singles. Tagoya, a medium- 
size midseason variety, should head the 
list of new ones; it is bronze with a 
metallic rose sheen. Last season’s Val¬ 
encia is a soft rose-pink that is striking 
—disbudded and three or four blooms 
to a plant. Bed Rover is a large 
bronze, especially when disbudded. 
Sonny Boy is probably the leader in 
single yellows, but Gretchen Piper is not 
far behind it. Red Radiant is an ex¬ 
ceptionally bright color, and we find it 
sells on sight. 
The outer petals on most varieties 
make it difficult to ship anemone-type 
chrysanthemums well, but there are 
some exceedingly choice kinds among 
them. They should particularly inter¬ 
est the retail grower, for they provide 
a showy variation. The Forrest Bebb 
exhibit of potted plants in this class 
at the Detroit show was a demonstra¬ 
tion of their value for pot plant pur¬ 
poses. 
Tuxedo is an extra-large, beautiful 
light rose-pink. 
The Titan is scarlet crimson, with a 
bronze cushion. As noted at all the 
shows, this is another extra-large vari¬ 
ety, but such flowers call for dis¬ 
budding. 
Rose Madder, another extra-large 
flower of a deep rose-pink, is attractive. 
Orchid Beauty, orchid rose-pink, with a 
light center, is highly attractive; do 
not miss it. Rio Rita is an exception¬ 
ally clear bright yellow. Purple Queen 
is a rich purple rose, quite dark. 
Difficult indeed is it to improve on 
the big chrysanthemums of today. 
Black-cloth shading will call for special 
attention in producing a hard-flower&d 
kind, not only to hold up under the 
summer conditions to which chrysan¬ 
themums are sometimes exposed, but 
to stand handling without showing the 
"Enclose Your Mum With Your Seed Order" 
.. 23 .. 
