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THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



House plants, with proper 

 HOUSE PLANTS attention and atmosphere, 



AND HUMIDITY should thrive in the winter 

 time, but how few people 

 succeed with them. Perhaps you have tried to grow 

 them and have had your disappointments despite your 

 best efforts and attention. Perhaps you put the blame 

 on the furnace, presuming that the gas killed them, as 

 it surely would, but it really was not gas, but lack of 

 humidity which caused your faiUire. 



The active root-hairs of a plant are really aquatic 

 and must always be in contact with an adequate sup- 

 ply of water. The stems and leaves are aerial, but 

 their behavior and form are largely determined by the 

 water in the air, that is, the humidity. The water sup- 

 ply is used by the root-hairs, while the water-loss is 

 the result of evaporation from the surface of the leaves. 

 The humidity of the air exerts a direct control upon 

 the amount of water evaporated by the leaves, and it 

 is evident that the evaporation will be great where the 

 air is dry. If this evaporation or water-loss is greater 

 than the supply, curling, drooping, and withering of 

 the leaves ensues. 



Even when you water the plants faithfully, the ex- 

 cessively dry atmosphere of the house is apt to over- 

 work them by drawing up the moisture through the 

 stems and leaves, for dry heated air will take up what 

 moisture it requires from every possible source. 



When vou consider that the humidity outdoors on a 

 bright summer day is about 70 per cent, you will ap- 

 preciate what an unnaturally dry atmosphere we have 

 in our homes in winter, where, if any water is evapo- 

 rated at all, it will be but a few quarts at most, with a 

 resultant humidity of perhaps 18 to 25 per cent. 



By all means, both for your own good as well as 

 that' of your plants, evaporate water freely by keeping 

 a pot or kettle steaming on the heater, or pans on the 

 registers. — Exchange. 



One of the big problems 

 VALUE OF that confront this country 



WASTED SEWAGE. >s the maintenance of soil 

 fertility, says H. L. Bradley 

 of the University of Wisconsin in Farm and Fireside. 

 We cannot hope' to go on forever taking oiT crops from 

 the land and turning the sewage which those crops 

 yield into the ocean. The phosphates, sulphates and 

 potassium must eventually disappear from soils which 

 are steadily cropped, and unless the deficiency is made 

 up the crops themselves will cease to grow. At pres- 

 ent we make up this deficiency by stable manure and 

 artificial fertilizers; but no one can deny that this par- 

 tial return to the soil of its essential constituents is but 

 putting ofif the day of reckoning to a future generation. 

 The onlv permanent plan for preserving soil fertility 

 in this or any other country is to return to the land 

 everything essential to plant growth which the crops 

 themselves remove. And the only way to accomplish 

 this is to return sewage to the soil, for human sewage 

 is the final form to which all edible crops are brought. 

 The ninety millions population of this country every 

 year eliminate 90.000 tons of phosphoric acid, 90,000 

 tons of sulphuric acid, 90,000 to 135,000 tons of potash, 

 9,000 tons of magnesia, 900.000 tons of organic mate- 

 rial, of which about 300,000 tons is valuable nitrogen 

 in its most available form for plant-food. Of this total 

 approximatelv 300.000 tons mineral and 900,000 tons 

 organic material, a small part, is returned to the land 

 by cesspools and similar devices for disposal, but the 

 \'ast bulk of it is poured directly or indirectly through 

 our rivers into the sea which we can never regain. 



It is unwise to plant any- 

 LOOSE thing in loose ground, as the 



GROUND. rcjots cannot grasp the soil 



unless the latter has been 

 pressed close to them. If it is necessary to plant any- 

 thing when the soil is too wet to give the necessary 

 firmness, a good treading, or, if necessary, ramming, 

 should be given when the surface becomes dryer. It is 

 necessary to study the character of the soil. I do not 

 recommend heavy soil to be trampled when wet as it 

 becomes unhealthy for the roots to work in, and when 

 dried out it crock's and parts with its moisture. 



This is certainly a relative 

 THE QUESTION question. It is' dependent 

 OF HARDINESS. largely upon the factor of 

 climatic environment, and in 

 discussing whether plants are hardy or tender in a 

 given locality, one must keep the factor of environ- 

 ment constantly in mind. Otherwise such vagaries 

 and inconsistencies of behavior are to be noted as 

 would appear entirely unexplainable. Hardiness is in- 

 herently perfect adaptation of a plant to its surround- 

 ings. A plant may be satisfactorily hardy in a region 

 where a temperature of minus 20 degs. is frequently regis- 

 tered, while it may winterkill in another locality where 

 the temperature does not fall below zero. For ex- 

 ample, our attention has recently been called to the 

 fact that American white ash, Carolina poplar, and the 

 vigorous Norway maple suflfered from winterkilling 

 on Nantucket Island where the minimum temperature 

 fell little, if any, below zero during the past winter. 

 Yet these trees lost a considerable proportion of their 

 terminal shoots. Now, this imperfect ripening was in turn 

 to be charged to peculiarities of the season. The long, 

 warm, and relatively moist autumn encouraged late 

 growth, and the imperfect storing of the buds and 

 wood tissue with reserve food material. 



It has long been noted that some of the liardy New 

 England trees and shrubs, when transplanted to the 

 British Isles, winterkill in the relatively moist and mild 

 climate of England. For the opposite reason, many 

 English plants fail when brought to this country, for 

 the reason that they are products of a long growing 

 season, and that when brought to this region they con- 

 tinue growing until stopped by frost. The result is 

 the same, namely, in the production when winter 

 comes round of imperfectly ripened wood, or in other 

 words, imperfectly stored cell tissue. 



It is worthy of note also that some plants possess 

 that character which we recognize as determinate 

 growers. In other words, they have a definite period 

 of growth and ripen up their wood at the end of that 

 period, and are uninfluenced by conditions favorable to 

 growth or otherwise which may follow this season. 

 An excellent example of this is found in the box elder 

 of the American Northwest. It grows with great 

 rapidity during the early part of the season, ceases 

 growth earlv. forms its terminal buds, drops its leaves, 

 and prepares for winter at an exceptionally early period. 

 The Duchess apple, the product of a region of short 

 summer heat, is another example of the same type. 

 The gooseberry and currant, cold-blooded plants from 

 the North, also furnish examples which illustrate this 

 point. These plants then are the products of definite 

 climatic conditions and are developed b}' a long pro- 

 cess of natural selection. The whole question then, or 

 at least a large portion of this question of hardiness, 

 comes back to the principle originally announced, 

 namelv, that of adaptation. — National Nurseryman. 



