February ]5, 1908 



HORTICULTURE 



197 



The Mechanical Fineness of Fer- 

 tilizers 



For the man)' users of bone or slag we publish these 

 remarks although these are not soluble fertilizers. 

 Wiat solubility they have, however, at the best is so 

 deiJendent upon fine grinding that v/e wish to drive 

 home the close connection between fine gi-inding and 

 immediate value. 



We are aware that some prejudice exists against fine 

 bone as some maintain its greater liability to adultera- 

 tion. This may have some truth in it. The way to 

 spot this sort of thing is by the microscope and chemical 

 analyses, which can not be carried about on the person, 

 and even these are not entirely satisfactory. Now we 

 hold no brief for the State Experiment Stations, in 

 fact, we may sometimes differ with them, but this is 

 what they are for, for one thing, and if a brand is rated 

 well, year after year and comes from a reputable house 

 these facts should have due weight. 



Experiment Stations now grade bone and other fer- 

 tilizers according to their fineness in addition to the 

 usual chemical analyses. A column is marked "Me- 

 chanical Condition" and a screen of about 40-mesh is 

 taken as a standard. What goes through is termed 

 "fine," what does not, "coarse." The larger propor- 

 tion of tests show more coarser than finer particles. 



A word as to "mesh. By this we mean so many 

 holes to the linear inch, the size thereof depending upon 

 how much room the wire or fabric takes up. This has 

 not been made standard as several scales are used even 

 in this country, but for the smaller sizes as 40 and over, 

 it is well enough to consider the wire as thick as the 

 hole is wide so -iO mesh would mean a hole of one- 

 eightieth of an inch across. 



It may not be practicable to grind to 200 mesh al- 

 though this is not uncommon in other industries. One 

 hrmdred can not be very difficult or exjjensive as shown 

 by the fact that an importer of slag has told us that 

 this runs about 100 mesh. This is a cheap source of 

 phosphates. 



This array of figures is to show at a glance thd great 

 increase of area with fineness which means just so 

 much progress toward value extracted. This method 

 of stating a truth may make a clearer appeal to the 

 understanding than mere assertion or even eloquence 

 (were we capable of this last.) 



Size Surface Proportion 



Sphere 1 In. in diameter 3. sq. inclies 1 



1-2 " " " 6. " " 2 



20 mesh 125. " " 42 



30 mesh 1S9. " " 63 



50 mesh 314. " " 100 



" 100 mesh 628. " " 200 



" 150 mesh 952. " " 300 



" 200 mesh 1256 " " 400 



Notice that a substance averaging 20 mesh would 

 have only a fifth the surface of one averaging 100 mesh. 



The additional cost of fine grinding should not begin 

 to be as expensive to the consumer as the good results 

 obtained immediately. 



The Fertilizing and Selecting of 

 Cyclamens 



In reply to Mr. Stuart's enquiry in last week's HOE- 

 TiCULTUEE, regarding the cyclamens at Sandring- 

 ham, and the methods of selection carried on there, I 

 may state that the system followed is, I believe, ex- 

 actly similar to that of any seed raising firm, only of 

 course the operations at Sandringliam are done on a 

 very small scale. 



No, Mr. Stuart, we did not do our fertilizing in a 

 house of mixed colors, neither could one ever hope to 

 improve, or even retain, the good qualities of a strain 

 of cyclamen, by following such a course, as it is against 

 all the laws of selection and is inconsistent with the 

 object we have in view. The idea which should domi- 

 nate us above all things, before we start our operations, 

 is that we should first form an exact conception of the 

 type of plant we are striving to produce, and then 

 confine our efforts to "selected" plants which come 

 nearest to this ideal. 



We must of course keep each color separate. Few 

 people outside the large trade growers could afford to 

 devote a separate house for each color; neither did I 

 think it necessary to do so, when I advocated private 

 selection in my previous article. 



At Sandringham, the greatest pains was taken each 

 year when selecting the plants which were to be set 

 aside for seed purposes. Care was taken to retain for 

 ihis purpose only the finest plants of each particular 

 color. Each color was kept entirely by itself, a scheme 

 of isolation being carried out, and as there were plenty 

 of houses suitable for our purpose, each color was given 

 a corner of a house to itself. Before starting our 

 operations, we carefully noted the result of the previous 

 year's work, and were thus in a position to see whether 

 our past efforts along different lines had been success- 

 ful. If one sort showed signs of losing color, we at 

 once took steps to remedy it. If, on the other 

 hand, we required more vigor, and new blood might 

 give us our desire, then we scoured the country until 

 we iound the exact tyi>e of plant which would be suit- 

 able for the purpose. 



In fertilizing each plant we always had a definite 

 object in view, and a record was made of every stage 

 of the work. This was kept, and compared every year; 

 it showed us the results of certain crosses which had 

 been made in previous years and, also, gave an idea as 

 to the amount of progress being made, and I can 

 assure Mr. Stuart that we always advanced, especially 

 in the quality of the flowers, and in richness and 

 coloring. 



Mr. Stuart remarked that with him poor results 

 came from selection of seed from good flowers, the 

 size of the flower, foliage and stem being retained "and 

 imiiroved" but not so the color. He ought to have 

 informed us whether any steps were taken to remedy 

 this fault. It appears, however, that Mr. Stuart could 

 not have been very persevering in his efforts, or he 

 would have gained at least some small measure of suc- 

 cess. Our experience has been that improvement in 

 color can only be attained by the union of colors, 

 bearing in mind of course the natural law, which says 

 that we must unite two to make one. The artist, for 

 example, has always to mix certain colors to get the 



