"I am a great lover of the Gladiolus. They are so easily grown, and the varieties now so numerous, furnishing almost every shade and arrangement of color, that I can not see how any one who has a love of flowers can avoid having one or more beds of this beautiful bulb. I have tried them in many different soils, and they grow and flower freely in all, so that one need not fear for want of the right soil. In rich, deep loams the flower stalk is much stronger, and the flowers somewhat larger, but I do not think they are as abundant, or the colors any more brilliant than when grown in poor soil. I make my beds very rich in the center, letting the soil become poorer and poorer, until the outer edge is reached; the result is that by so doing my flower-stems rise one above the other, forming a cone by which all are in plain view, even at a distance." - John Bobbis, Ohio.

In pruning currant bushes, remember that while the red and white varieties produce their fruit on spurs or small snags upon the old wood as well as upon the growth of last season, the Black Currant produces most of its fruit upon the wood of the preceding year, and that while it will answer to shorten back the growth on the red and white varieties, it is better to prune the black by simply thinning out the weak shoots.