134 



HORTICULTURE 



February 3, 1906 



CARNATIONS IN THE ROCKY 

 MOUNTAINS. 



(Read before the American Carnation So- 



I irty.i 

 By J. A. Valentine, Denver, Colo. 



Most of you who attend these con- 

 ventions are conversant with the 

 methods and conditions prevailing 

 among carnation growers in general, 

 but Chicago has probably been your 

 western horizon, beyond which there 

 has been little to induce investigation. 

 The success or failure of any industry 

 must be the result of the conditions 

 met with, together with the efforts 

 made to counteract or profit by them, 

 as the case may be; and climate, to- 

 gether with soil and water, are the 

 chief natural conditions to be consid- 

 ered by the florist. Other factors that 

 make for success or failure are the 

 transportation facilities (the distance 

 that can be covered before flowers suf- 

 fer severely in transit); the population 

 within these transit limits; the ability 

 and the disposition of this population 

 to buy flowers, and the competition 

 from within and without. 



It is true that an overwhelmingly 

 large proportion of the carnation busi- 

 ness of the country is carried on in 

 those states within a thousand miles 

 of the Atlantic coast, yet beyond Chi- 

 cago lies a territory of equal extent, 

 which must be crossed and left behind 

 before one reaches the eastern limits 

 of the Rocky Mountain region. It is 

 quite the common thing to admit that 

 a grower will be handicapped by dif- 

 ferences in soil and climate if he moves 

 from England to Massachusetts, or 

 from the Atlantic to Ohio or Indiana; 

 yet the difference in conditions be- 

 tween any of these points is not so 

 great as between either of these lo- 

 calities and the Rocky Mountain 

 region. Except in a few limited areas 

 the whole of this country east of Kan- 

 sas and Nebraska is less than a thou- 

 sand feet above sea level, and in the 

 small elevated sections the differences 

 in soil, humidity or precipitation are 

 not extreme; but when we come to the 

 Rocky Mountains we find a territory 

 over 1500 miles long from north to 

 south, and averaging 500 miles in 

 width, with very few points less than 

 4000 feet above the sea. The air is dry, 

 the rainfall meagre, and the sunlight 

 brilliant. In short, the whole region 

 is arid, and ordinary farm crops can- 

 not be produced without artificial irri- 

 gation. It is almost impossible to con- 

 vey by words an adequate idea of the 

 drying effect of the air of this region. 

 One must actually have seen and ex- 

 perienced the thing to be able to ap- 

 preciate it. When I say that the an- 

 nual rainfall of this region averages 

 about ten or twelve inches, and that 

 the rainfall here in Massachusetts or 

 in Indiana is four times^that, you will 

 not get an adequate conception of the 

 difference. After a rain here your 



humid air prevents rapid evaporation, 

 while with us nature at once proceeds 

 to rob the soil of that which she has 

 just bestowed, so that an inch of 

 rain is not so effective as here. Dews 

 and fogs are rare, almost unknown, 

 except on mountain peaks, which are 

 storm centres, as they are everywhere. 

 To me one of the most striking evi- 

 dences of the drying effect of the air 

 is the fact that a man exercising in the 

 hot sun of summer will seldom feel 

 his underclothing cling to his body, the 

 evaporation being rapid enough to 

 nearly offset his perspiration. The 

 temperature records of the weather 

 bureau would make it appear that 

 Denver and Indianapolis have about 

 the same mean temperature both for 

 July and for January, and that the 

 highest and the lowest recorded tem- 

 perature is nearly alike for both 

 places; but owing to the dry air Den- 

 ver has a great advantage in what is 

 known as the "sensible temperature" 

 both in hot weather and in winter. 

 What I have said regarding the climate 

 applies equally well to the whole of 

 the arid region of which the Rocky 

 Mountain country is but a part. 



The natural growth of vegetation 

 throughout this whole region is very 

 scanty except upon the high moun- 

 tains, and even there one will not find 

 anything approaching the riotous 

 growth to be encountered on such 

 mountains as the coast ranges of 

 Oregon and Washington. There are 

 pines, to be sure, and spruce, especially 

 on the northern slopes, but the general 

 appearance justifies the name given to 

 the range. The plains or high 

 plateaus are covered with a very 

 scanty growth of grass in little bunch- 

 es, widely separated, and for ten 

 months in the year these are brown 

 and have a dead appearance. Owing to 

 the fact that there is little moisture, 

 the dead grasses do not rot and add 

 to the soil from which they grew, but 

 they wither and disiccate and seem to 

 vanish into nothingness. 



I have gone into this matter at some 

 length because I believe that soils are 

 closely related to climate; in fact, 

 largely the result of climate, and I 

 have prepared you to understand that 

 in many ways our soils must differ 

 from the soils of the east and of the 

 lake region. Frosts and wind are 

 steadily carrying on the work that they 

 have been doing for ages, but the work 

 of all these is mainly mechanical, and 

 the result must be largely mineral. 

 The vegetable elements, the fibre and 

 the humus are sadly lacking. In a 

 great many localities mineral salts are 

 present in such quantity as to render 

 the soil unfit for greenhouse use, and 

 in some cases it is barren even in the 

 field. We are apt to say that such soils 

 contain "alkali." without any thought 

 or knowledge as to the exact nature 

 of the harmful element. My observa- 

 tion has been that the rose is more 

 resentful of the presence of these salts 

 than the carnation. I am not person- 

 ally sure of its truth, but it is com- 

 monly reported that for lack of suit- 

 able soil and water, roses cannot be 

 successfully grown under glass in the 

 vicinity of Salt Lake City. 



As the character of the soil is large- 

 ly determined by the climate, so, too, 

 is the character of the water largely 

 determined by the soil of the region 

 through which it runs. In nearly all 

 the arid region except in the strictly 



mountainous portions, the water is al- 

 kaline. In some sections it is so bad 

 that neither man nor beast can use it 

 to drink, and vegetation suffers from 

 contact with it; while in other cases 

 only the test of the chemist shows the 

 presence of any deleterious substance. 

 Where the soil is decomposed shale, 

 it is generally heavy and known as 

 "adobe," a clay heavy enough from 

 which to make sun-dried bricks. This 

 soil, when dried by the sun after a. 

 rain, will open great cracks an inch 

 or more in width and a great many 

 feet in length. It is needless to say 

 that it would not produce good results 

 in a carnation bench, but it does yield 

 good crops for the farmer who under- 

 stands how to cultivate and irrigate it. 

 This heavy adobe is at one extreme, 

 and we find all grades of soil differing 

 in texture up to sand and gravel. 



In some parts of the mountains we 

 have enormous deposits of red sand- 

 stone, and the soil adjacent will be a 

 bright red sandy loam, which yields 

 excellent crops in the field, but lacks 

 the necessary substance for use in the 

 bench. 



Within a small area, soils of very 

 different character can often be found, 

 and not infrequently the topography 

 will indicate different rock formations 

 as the source from which they came, 

 but almost without exception there 

 will be the same lack of vegetable 

 matter. This lack is one which can 

 measurably be supplied so far as the 

 chemistry of the soil is concerned, but 

 the texture of the soil cannot be as 

 satisfactorily corrected. During the 

 winter the carnations require a thor- 

 ough watering once or twice a week, 

 and I think all growers in our section 

 will agree with me in saying that we 

 have been unable to find a soil that 

 will endure this heavy watering 

 throughout a season in the bench with- 

 out becoming packed and soggy, unless 

 it is a soil so sandy that it will not 

 produce a good crop. 



It is to be hoped that we may learn 

 something to our advantage from the 

 scientific soil investigations now being 

 conducted by the Department of Ag- 

 riculture and the various experimental 

 stations. Certainly all of us have 

 much to learn, and our progress is so- 

 slow as to be disheartening. 



When we come to consider the mat- 

 ter of propagation, I am inclined to 

 think that the florist in the arid region 

 has several advantages over his east- 

 ern brother, but the advantages are 

 not all on one side. When the cuttings 

 are taken, the parent plants have been 

 growing in bright sunlight and the 

 foliage is crisp and erect. The plants 

 have not had to struggle through 

 weeks of cloudy weather with the snow 

 on the roof perhaps, for days at a time. 

 I think I have never seen our houses 

 darkened by snow more than two days 

 in succession, and probably not more 

 than half a dozen times in ten years. 

 But when the cuttings are taken from 

 the plant, the dry air immediately be- 

 gins to attack them, and they must be 

 put into sand promptly or they are 

 ruined. After they are in the sand 

 they must be watered, generally once 

 a day, and often twice. A low house 

 is the most satisfactory for propagat- 

 ing, because artificial humidity can be 

 created. Cloth curtains under the 

 glass and in front of the bench help to 

 prevent wilting. I do not think propa- 

 uating could be successfully carried on 



