September 12, 1908 



HORTICULTURE 



M9 



was informally discussed but nothing 

 definite decided upon. Wm, Rusting 

 of Buffalo, chairman of the National 

 Committee, will call a meeting a 

 Chicago about the 15th inst. and the 

 club decided to hold a special meeting 

 at that time to perfect arrangements. 

 The Rose Show Committee reported 

 and was discharged. 



TWO NEGLECTED ANNUALS. 



The section of garden annuals popu- 

 larly known as Everlastings embrace 

 many very beautiful flowers among 

 which none are more desirable for 

 garden or pot culture than the one il- 

 lustrated herewith. Rhodanthe Man 



CLUB AND SOCIETY NOTES. 



The American Association of Rail- 

 road Gardeners met at Niagara Falls 

 Sept. 9. 



At the meeting of the Houghton 

 Horticultural Society, Lynn, Mass., on 

 Sept. 2, E. F. Dwyer gave an entertain- 

 ing talk. 



The Illinois State Fair to lie held at 

 Springfield the last week in September 

 will make quite a feature of plants 

 and flowers and valuable premiums are 

 offered. 



At the first September show of the 

 Worcester County Horticultural So- 

 ciety, Worcester, Mass., gladioli, be- 

 gonias and phloxes were abundant 

 and fine. 



A very interesting discussion was 

 started at the last meeting of the Win- 

 nipeg Florists' Association (Manitoba) 

 on "The Aster Blight and Its Cause," 

 which will be continued at a future 

 meeting. 



At the meeting of the Southern 

 Nurserymen's Association at Atlanta, 

 Ga., Aug. 19, 20, Henry Chase was 

 elected president; J. C. Miller, vice- 

 president; and A. I. Smith, Knoxville. 

 Tenn., was re-elected secretary and 

 treasurer. The next annual meeting 

 will be held at Huntsville, Ala. 



The horticultural exhibition which 

 opened Sept. 3 at Manitoba Hall, Win- 

 nipeg, was a really splendid one. and 

 the sum of $1,000 which was offered 

 in prizes brought out the exhibitors 

 in goodly numbers. The exhibition 

 was under the joint auspices of the 

 Winnipeg Florists' Association and the 

 Western Horticultural Society, and its 

 officials worked hard to make the show 

 a success. 



Messrs. F. R. Pierson, Peter Duff, 

 John E. Lager. Jos. A. Manda. W. W. 

 Burnham and John Young, represent- 

 ing the Horticultural Society of New 

 York, held a meeting at Mr. Young's 

 office on Tuesday, Sept. S, to make ar- 

 rangements for the fall exhibition 

 which will take place at the Museum 

 of Natural History, SOth street and 

 Columtms avenue, New York City, on 

 Nov. 17, IS and 19. 



At the sixth annual meeting of the 

 Society of Iowa Florists on Aug. 2S 

 officers were elected as follows: Presi- 

 dent, Charles N. Page, Des Moines; 

 vice-president, J. S. Wilson, Des 

 .Moines; secretary Wesley Greene, 

 Davenport; treasurer, Peter Lambert, 

 Des Moines. It was voted to hold a 

 special meeting the second week in 

 December and the next annual meeting 

 in Des Moines during the state fair 

 next fall. 



The Mt. Desert Nurseries, Bar Har- 

 bor, had a magnificent collection of 

 decorative plants and cut flowers, Cas- 

 co Castle Greenhouses displayed cut 

 flowers, E. F. Hitchings, Bangor, 

 showed a home flower garden, where 

 the sweet peas were a leading feature, 

 and A. R. Meader had gladioli at the 

 fair at Waterville, Me., last wei k 



Rhodanthe Manglesi 



glesi, also called Helipterum Manglesi, 

 furnishes a profusion of lovely pink 

 and white blossoms throughout the 

 midsummer season when such are 

 most needed in the border. The globe 

 amararth which is in many respects 

 inferior to this rhodanthe is, for some 

 unexplained reason much more com- 

 monly grown. There should be a place 



VlSCAKIA oCUI.ATA ALBA 

 in every garden for Rhodanthe 

 Manglesi. 



Another meritorious but neglected 

 annual is the pretty little lyohnis, 

 Viscaria oculata alba, shown in the 

 accompanying illustration. In associa- 

 tion with the pink flowered type it 

 makes a very effective display in the 

 garden border. 



FERTILIZERS AND FERTILITY. 



(A Paper by J. F. Cowell, read before the 



tv 'of American Florists and 



Ornamental Horticulturists, at 



Niagara Falls, N. Y., Aug. 



19, 190S.) 



Few phases or scientific investiga- 

 tions are of greater interest, or hold- 

 forth more promise of profitable re- 

 sults, than the studies which are being 

 made in regard to the fertility of our 

 soils and their conservation. To the 

 gardener the subject is of prime im- 

 portance, whether his work be in the 

 open field or under a roof of glass; 

 whether engaged in the growing of the 

 primary food products, or in the pro- 

 duction of materials for decoration and 

 the expression of the higher aesthetic 

 feelings of mankind. 



That we are still in the experimental 

 stage of agriculture can haidly be de- 

 nied, though we are slowly approxima- 

 ting to a scientific basis. Theory and 

 practice are often at variance, probably 

 from a misunderstanding of the 

 meaning of the facts before us. 

 These differences will in time be elimi- 

 nated, and our practice will constantly 

 become more exact. That we still 

 have many things to learn about our 

 soils and their relation to plant life 

 goes without saying, but at the present 

 time I think we are not all making 

 the best use of the knowledge which 

 has accumulated on these subjects. 



In this paper, today, will be found 

 little that is original, but rather an 

 attempt to collate and place before 

 you some of the more striking facts. 

 ami theories current at this time. 



In these days of extensive garden- 

 ing, all questions relating in any way 

 to the supply and assimilation of the 

 elements of fertility are of vital in- 

 terest, as upon their correct solution 

 depends the final profit or loss. 



In order that we may discuss these 

 matters more intelligently, let us 

 briefly review some of the fundamental 

 facts which underlie the subject, as 

 well as some modern theories of fertili- 

 ty and assimilation, and the relation 

 of various factors which enter into the 

 problem of plant growth. 



The great bulk of plant tissue is 

 made up of starch, cellulose and 

 water, with a small amount of pro- 

 toid? or albuminoids. These reduced 

 to their simplest terms mean carbon, 

 oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, which, 

 together with potash, phosphorus 

 and a little lime and sulphur, make 

 up the list of essentials. Carbon, 

 oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen in 

 gaseous condition are everywhere 

 present in the atmosphere, while pot- 

 ash, phosphorus and lime and sulphur 

 are found to a greater or less extent 

 in most soils, and are the elements 

 whirh become exhausted and have to be 



