THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



821 



gle of life against life. Her ubject no doubt is to weed 

 oft' the weak and undesirable and encourage only the 

 fittest to survive. If we go in any field or garden, we 

 will often see side by side the same kind of plants, one 

 dying while the other is healthy. This is nature's provi- 

 sion in preserving species. Progressive growers do not 

 fail to take advantage of this lesson. By selecting from 

 a diseased field all the resistant strains and allowing 

 them to multiply we obtain crops which are resistant to 

 disease. It must not be implied or expected that a re- 

 sistant strain will stand the attack of all the diseases. 

 Such is not the case. A plant may be resistant to one 

 disease and susceptible to others. In selecting for resis- 

 tant strains it may be well to select for those diseases 

 which are most troublesome in our immediate locality. 



We hear so much these days of sanitary methods con- 

 cerning human beings. Why not sanitation in plants. 

 We all agree that plants are living things, subject to 

 struggle and to disease. Through sanitation we are 

 daily reducing the human and animal diseases to a mini- 

 mum. This same may be accomplished with plants. Ev 

 sanitation is meant giving the plant the proper care in 

 order to develop vigor and resistance to disease. Proper 

 drainage will allow the necessary aeration for the roots. 

 Proper fertilization and cultivation will insure food sup- 

 ply ; clean cultivation, the killing of weeds and the burn- 

 ing of all rubbish and diseased materials will lessen the 

 sources of infection. 



WINTER SOIL TREATMENT. 



By Karl Laxgenbeck. 



Every season on the farm has its duties, for in no 

 business does work interlock to the same degree, and 

 what is neglected today influences profits next year. 

 By this time the mechanical outdoor work of the fields 

 is done and nature is left to her own dexices. Freez- 

 ing, thawing, leaching, action of carbonic acid gas, 

 weathering, all the forces of mechanical and chemical 

 action on the soil are most active now. It is well to 

 stop and consider what this means and what the frosts 

 and snows and thaws do for the land. Understanding 

 opens the door for improving. The last crop and the 

 fall rains have taken so much of the plant foods out 

 of the soil as was in condition for solution and absorp- 

 tion by the rootlets. This has to be restored for "the 

 coming season's growth. 



The soils contains the nccessarj^ elements in abund- 

 ance, but not in soluble, or as we may truly say. in digest- 

 ible form. The cracking by frost of the soil particles 

 letting in the water and acid of the air renders them 

 so. Whatever work has been done on the land in 

 breaking it up is so much to good in aiding these natu- 

 ral agencies. This much, every man understand, that 

 w-orks on land, ploughing, breaking clods, harrowing, 

 draining, heljis the fertility by helping nature's me- 

 chariical forces unlock plant food. 



What the farmer is seldom or never reminded of in 

 simple unmistakable terms is that he can also aid 

 nature's chemical forces for without there, plant foods 

 are not made digestible or soluble in the soil in suffi- 

 cient amount to pay. To remind oneself of what 

 chemical forces arc and how they work, smell a liotlle 

 of ammonia, put some h'e or caustic on the skin or 

 take a taste of sharp vinegar. Then, think how am- 

 monia cleans, lye cuts grease and vinegar will dissohc 

 marble and other hard stones. 



Now, as physical and chemical forces act together 

 in nature, particularly in winter, to make available a 

 new supply of digestible plant food, so must the farmer 

 supplement the work of tillage by the solvent or diges- 



luc ircalmeiit ul chemical agcac} . European farmers, 

 who well understand this and average 35 bushels to the 

 acre against 15 bushels of wheat in America, and other 

 crops in proportion, use the one chemical agent for the 

 purpose which can alone be applied. This agent is lime. 

 Its sharp or caustic property makes it cut the insoluble 

 silicates of ])otash and phosphates of alumina and iron 

 making potash and phosphates soluble. Burned lime 

 (quicklime) can do no harm in winter to growing 

 things. Where clover and legumes have been ploughed 

 under it furthers their decomposition correcting the 

 first souring stage and making good humus b)' spring. 

 Manure, which is vegetable and animal matter which 

 has gone through this initial decomposition, should be 

 applied some weeks after the lime. In this way, and 

 at any rate at this season, humus destruction by quick- 

 lime is a negligible factor. For these reasons use lime 

 now. It can be put on the frozen ground or on the 

 snow. It will at once begin to work downward and 

 get in its work. Winter and fall enable it to exert 

 its benefits, bringing out what is in the soil itself, 

 tliereby cheapening next season's fertilizer bill. 



A FINE WESTERN ESTATE. 



The estate of R. II. Allerton, at Monticello, 111., is 

 certainly creditable to the ability of its superintendent, 



las. C. .Shield. During the time Mr. Shield has been in 



HOME OF R. II. AI.LERTON, MON-riCELLO, ILL. 



charge he has constructed almost all of the landscape 

 eiifect by his own skill. Combined with the rugged forest 

 lands and sunken ground in the vicinity, together with 



APPLICATION FOR MEMBERSHIP 



National Association of Gardeners 



I hereby apply for Membership in your Association : — 



Name in fall- 



Occupation . 



Address 



Dafe __ 

 Reference 



Forward Application lo M. C. EBEL, Secretary, Madison. 

 N. J., 'with dues, <cuhich are S2.00 annually. Including subscrip- 

 tion to the official organ of the Association. 



