August 15, 1908 



HORTICULTURE 



205 



A KALMIA LATIFOLIA PLANTATION IN MAINE. 



The accompanying illustration may 

 give an idea of the appearance, while 

 in bloom, of a mass of mountain 

 laurel (Kalmia Iatifolia) on the estate 

 of Mr. William A. Rogers, in Kenne- 

 bunk, Maine. Ths> photograph was 

 taken in the latter part of June this 

 year, and about thirteen months after 

 planting. The plants were wild, col- 

 lected in central Massachusetts. They 

 are planted for the most part in a 

 rather light, sandy, friable, brown 

 loam, much of which had to be added 

 to the existing top soil, which was of 

 l he same character, to receive the 

 minimum depth desired, viz.. eighteen 

 inches. In a few spots some of this 

 added top soil is fairly black, but in 

 all cases it is friable and light and 

 yet it does not have that lightness 

 which is a characteristic of peat or 

 black muck .vhen they become dry. 

 It all came from a piece of land which 

 at one time was in vegetable crops of 

 various kinds and therefore manured, 

 in times past at least, but which of 

 late years has been in hay and con- 

 tained more or less root fibre or 

 humus. The plants seem to be doing 

 ecpually well in the Drown and black 

 loam. Other than as just stated there 

 is no manure in the soil. !t may be 

 said in passing, however, that manure 

 judiciously applied is of benefit to 

 mountain laurel. 



This plantation stands on ground 

 sloping gently to tie north with a 

 rather thin backing of white pines, 

 red spruces and a few other kinds of 

 trees to the south of them. On the 

 north side it is pretty well exposed, 

 standing as it does on the edge of an 

 open mowing field. In view of this 

 fact, and that this part of Maine is 

 visited in winter by truly terrific 

 winds of frequent occurence and long 

 duration, it has been thought best 

 and perhaps necessary, to give the 

 plants late in the fall a dense ever- 

 green protection, which in thi ir case 

 consists of boughs of the red spruce, 

 a native tree of great abundance in 

 this section of the country. It is in- 

 tended by experiment to determine 

 how much if any of this winter pro- 

 tection can be dispensed with Uo see 

 if mountain laurel ia this ri giou is in 

 the '•iron-clad" class), although it is 

 not improbable that protection may be 

 a necessity on account of the severity 



of the climate, and notwithstanding 

 that mountain laurel is a native oc- 

 cuiring sparingly not far away and 

 further inland. That protection in any 

 case is beneficial was very apparent 

 this spring when it was removed, as 

 the plants had passed through the 

 winter unusually well, better than they 

 usually do in favored locations: that 

 is, thev looked just the same as 

 though they had been carefully stored 

 in a cellar. 



The 'plantation is of rather moder- 

 ate si::e, a little over one hundred 

 plants, not all of which are c )m- 

 prised in the illustration. The less 

 so far is probably less than ten per 

 cent. However, mountain laurel when 

 transplanted not infrequently has a 

 manner of melting away, as it were, 

 apparently without cause, so it may be 

 a little soon to feel sure of what the 

 permanent result will be. This trouble 

 is often brought about by errors in 

 the choice of site lor and preparation 

 of the area in which they are planted, 

 and by errors in their maintenance, and 

 manipulation, such as too much and 

 deep cultivation, raking away the 

 leaves from among the plants, etc. 

 This plantation so far has not been 

 subjected to any of the above faults 

 and will probably have the best of 

 care in all ways, so that permanently 

 successful results may be hoped for. 

 H. J. KOI2HLER. 



The glass situation. 



Owing to the unsettled conditions 

 thioufhoet the country only a small 

 proportion of the manufacturers of 

 window glass were in operation up to 

 July, and by July 1 practically all of 

 the hand-blown plants closed down 

 for the summer. While the demand 

 for window and greenhouse glass has 

 been less than normal, the supply also 

 hao been much less, so that the man- 

 ufacturers find themselves with ttnti- 

 suaily small and broken up stocks, 

 and there appeal's to be a great scar- 

 fit \ throughout the country oi glass 

 in the better qualities. 



This applies equally to greenhouse 

 glass, and as no more glass can be 

 made and put upon the market before 

 at least the early part of October, 

 much higher prices are liable to pre- 

 vail for glass from present stocks. 



ROSES IN COLORADO. 



A paper by J. A. Valentine of Denver, 



Colo., before the American Rose 



Society. 



The State of Colorado, situated a 

 little to the west of the geographical 

 center of the United States, is about 

 375 miles long from east to west, about 

 275 miles wide, and has a total popula- 

 tion of about 650,000. Denver, the 

 principal city and capital of Colorado, 

 with a population ol about 200,000, is 

 situated a little to the east and north 

 of the center of the State. In travel- 

 ing from Chicago to Denver, your 

 journey would be a little longer than 

 from Chicago to New York. 



In going west from here by rail, you 

 reach the Missouri River at Omaha in 

 about five hundred miles. From there 

 for more than five hundred miles you 

 - an immense plain, with an av- 

 erage rise of about seven feet to the 

 mile, so that by the time you reach 

 Denver you will be a mile above sea 

 level. 



Topography of Colorado. 



You will have traversed the State of 

 Nebraska from east to west, and a large 

 part of the State is now fertile and 

 has productive farms, although with- 

 in the memory of some of those here 

 today it was a portion of the Great 

 American desert, and considered ster- 

 ile and unproductive. My own per- 

 sonal knowledge of this region only 

 extends back about twenty-five years, 

 but I can very well remember when 

 the meridian of 100 degrees was spoken 

 of as a dead line, beyond which it was 

 absolutely impossible to conduct any 

 farming enterprise without irrigation. 

 Today the situation is so far changed 

 that a great many people are contend- 

 ing that profitable farming without 

 irrigation is possible even as far west 

 as Denver, and, more than that, they 

 are showing a good many substantial 

 results to justify the faith within 

 them. 



The eastern half of Colorado is part 

 of the immense plain already men- 

 tioned, and the western half is moun- 

 tainous. The main range of the Rock- 

 ies lies directly west of Denver, with 

 the crest of the range only about fifty 

 miles away, with numerous peaks 

 n aching an elevation of 14,000 feet, 

 and the gaps or passes ranging from 

 ten to twelve thousand feet. West- 

 ward from here the whole State is 

 mountainous, with many fertile val- 

 leys between the ranges, some of them 

 narrow and some of them wide; but 

 from the eastern to the western boun- 

 dary of the State the whole region is 

 arid, with a very light rainfall, which 

 averages about 1-1 inches per annum in 

 the vicinity of t>enver: and farming 

 by ordinary' methods is not possible 

 without irrigation. Evaporation is at 

 all times very rapid, and dews almost 

 unknown. 



Recently a great many experiments 

 have been conducted under what is 

 known as the "Campbell System." 

 which briefly means intensive cultiva- 

 tion and a retention of the moisture 

 in the soil by continually keeping the 

 surface in a pulverized condition, and 

 thereby preventing evaporation. It is* 



