he estimation of another. Once, when I exhibited
ninety varieties at a fair, I was surprised to see a lady select as her
first choice the one which was ninetieth in my opinion.

There are several ways of obtaining a fine collection. If one can afford
to gratify his wishes without regard to expense, he can buy named
varieties year after year, select those that he most admires, and reject
the others. With less outlay he can buy mixed bulbs of a high grade, or
unbloomed seedlings, and retain the finest, as before. This is an
excellent way, and in no other can a choice collection be obtained for
so little money in so short a time. Another method, which involves still
less expense but requires more time, is to grow bulbs from seed, and it
is wise to procure the seed from many different sources, in order to
attain the most extensive range of colors and characteristics. Seedlings
well grown the first year will show a few flowers the second, and the
next season all will bloom. The grower can then choose those that please
him best, and this work is unspeakably captivating.

CHAPTER XVII.

How to Keep a Collection Vigorous and Well Balanced.

The gladiolus, like other flowering plants, shows the effects of
continued neglect or ill usage in diminished vigor and inferior bloom.
This is not saying that a variety will "go back" to some ancestral sort,
or that it will lose its individuality, but it will become puny and
unsatisfactory. This deterioration is principally due to mismanagement,
and can be counteracted by a change of methods. Suppose a fine, conical
bulb is planted. If it meets with no misfortune it will produce a
perfect spike of flowers, and perhaps a dozen or twenty pods of seed.
When taken up in the fall, the bulb is almost certain to be small and
flat, on account of having exhausted its vitality in blooming and
seed-bearing, and if it yields any bulblets they will probably be so
diminutive as to be thought not worth saving. No amount of skill could
get much out of that bulb the second year.

There are two ways to bring it up to its former vigor. First: plant the
bulb the next spring under the most favorable circumstances, give it
plenty of plant food and the best of care, provide support for the
foliage, cut the spike as soon as possible, and when the bulb is taken
up it will be large and solid, and ready to do energetic work the
following year. The second, and better way, of restoring a variety that
has