For diversity of color and general effect, either in masses, or in beds
of three or four rows, placing the bulbs one foot apart and three inches
deep. Mix a liberal supply of well-rotted manure with the soil, and if
clayey, use sand. As soon as the plants are sufficiently tall stake
them, and mulch with dressing.
The Use of Flowers.
God might have made the earth bring forth
Enough for great and small,
The oak-tree and the cedar-tree,
Without a flower at all.
We might have had enough, enough,
For every want of ours,
For luxury, medicine, and toil,
And yet have had no flowers.
Then wherefore, wherefore, were they made,
All dyed with rainbow light,
All fashioned with supremest grace,
Upspringing day and night;--
Springing in valleys green and low,
And on the mountains high,
And in the silent wilderness,
Where no man passes by?
Our outward life requires them not,--
Then wherefore had they birth?--
To minister delight to man,
To beautify the earth;
To comfort man,--to whisper hope,
Whene'er his faith is dim,
For Who so careth for the flowers,
Will care much more for him.