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HOETICULTUEE 



December 13, 1913 



Why Do We Feed Plants? 

 Realizing that air and water are the 

 two greatest factors in plant growth, 

 yet when we talk of feeding we gen- 

 erally mean supplying some of the va- 

 rious mineral salts which are sup- 

 posed to be deficient in the soil. We 

 feed nitrogenous substances to pro- 

 mote and increase growth; phosphatic 

 substances for fruitfulness and early 

 maturity and potash for quality, such 

 as high color and flavor in fruits, scent 

 in flowers, etc. Every man using a 

 fertilizer should know something of 

 its ingredients, chemically, and should 

 know what he is feeding for and 

 whether the particular fertilizer he is 

 using is likely, in the nature of it, to 

 bring about the desired results. 



Why Prune? 



Why do we prime? Some don't, and 

 others do but partly, but a man should 

 have, if he would prune intelligently, 

 a clear idea of the objects of pruning, 

 which are — first, to so thin out the 

 weak and superfluous growths as to 

 give a maximum of light and air to 

 that which remains to the end that it 

 may become fruitful, strong and heal- 

 thy. Secondly, to maintain the proper 

 size and form of the tree. Summer 

 pinching or pruning seems to be espe- 

 cially valuable in the production of 

 fruit buds. When a man is pruning a 

 mixed border of flowering shrubs he 

 must ask liimself which are spring 

 flowering and which are fall flowering, 

 or, better, which flower on last sea- 

 son's growth and whicli on the new 

 growth as il makes all the difference 

 in the time and the manner of their 

 pruning. The same applies to the 

 pruning of some of the climbing roses 

 as against the teas and hybrid per- 

 petuals, but this is not a treatise on 

 pruning, but a suggestion for use of 

 thought and questioning in this as in 

 other things. But here is another 

 question on pruning. Why do we root 

 prune? and the answer is. "we don't." 

 or at least very few of us do. And 

 my personal opinion is that it is not 

 worth the labor as the same object of 

 promoting the production of fruit buds 

 may be attained by methods less labo- 

 rious and just as sure. 



Why Mulch? 



Why do we mulch? The primary 

 purpose of mulching is the conserva- 

 tion of soil moisture by cutting off 

 evaporation, and of course, when w-e 

 mulch with manure we are indirectly 

 feeding the plants too. Heavy mulch- 

 ing is a mistake as it will prevent the 

 sun heat from warming the soil and 

 if it excludes the air will cause deni- 

 tration which is apt to undo much of 

 the good that might rightly be expect- 

 ed of this operation. In the fall we 

 mulch newly transplanted trees be- 

 cause their roots are not in such inti- 

 mate contact with the soil as to be 

 able to take up sufficient water and so 

 by mulching and preventing the ball 

 from freezing and keeping it fairly 

 moist at all times those roots that are 

 able to perform their functions will 

 keep the plant or tree going until the 

 advent of better growing conditions in 

 the spring. Nature attempts to mulch 

 many trees in the fall, especially the 

 low-growing evergreens, but in our 

 zeal to clean up we are apt to rake 

 them out and thereby rob the ever- 



green of a much-needed protection for 

 the winter. Many evergreens die dur- 

 ing winter and early spring from lack 

 of water, because the ground is frozen 

 deep and the roots cannot take up 

 water, while at the same time the sun 

 is strong and perhaps there is a cold 

 drying wind. Were these trees heavily 

 mulched with leaves the frost would 

 not go so deep, thereby allowing the 

 roots to supply water and in many 

 cases valuable trees would be saved. 

 Why does the grass grow so much 

 more luxuriantly on the lawn in spots 

 where mushrooms have been growing 

 than elsewhere? I attempt no answer 

 but merely note the fact in the hope 

 that some of you might furnish the ex- 

 planation. 



Why Drain Land? 



Why do we drain land? We drain 

 land to remove stagnant water and to 

 lower the natural water table to such 

 depths as we believe to be conducive 

 to the healthy development of plant 

 'life. 



Why is from three to four feet the 

 best depth to lay tile drains? Only a 

 short time ago a prominent gardener 

 while giving a talk before one of the 

 horticultural societies condemned the 

 idea of draining so deep and argued 

 that depths around thirty inches w^ere 

 sufficient, because the drains were 

 then nearer to their work, as if their 

 work was at the surface. This is a 

 subject that only comes up occasional- 

 ly and gardeners are not often called 

 upon to lay out and construct systems 

 of drainage, but I am firmly convinced 

 that it should be a part of every gar- 

 dener's education to know the correct 

 principles of land drainage, and. be- 

 cause of the general confusion of ideas 

 which seem to play around this sub- 

 ject, I trust you will excuse me for 

 taking a little time in dealing with it. 

 From three to four feet is advocated 

 because, after nearly a hundred years 

 of experience and experiment the 

 world over, in all kinds of soil, under 

 a great diversity of conditions, and at 

 depths ranging between one and eight 

 feet, the balance of authority is in fav- 

 or of the depths mentioned. Forty-two 

 inches is better than tliirty because it 

 gives another foot of living, growing, 

 inhabitable soil, for it must be known 

 and understood that a soil filled with 

 free stagnant water is a dead soil as 

 far as the great majority of plants are 

 concerned, in fact all with the excep- 

 tion of a few aquatic and semi-aquatic 

 plants. You have all seen a tree that 

 was dug out of. or even blown over 

 in swampy land and noted that its 

 roots seldom or never go down more 

 than a foot or so. — at any rate, to no 

 greater depths than that to which the 

 water recedes during the summer. At 

 depths greater than four feet the cost 

 of the work increases at a greater rate 

 than the benefits accnie. but the great- 

 er the depth the greater the amount of 

 water a drain will discharge in a given 

 time. As four feet is the limit of 

 capillarity in all but the very closest 

 grained soils we do away with the cold 

 of evaporation which is what keeps 

 our soils cold and makes them so late 

 in spring. Some might say if you cut 

 off capillarity our soils would get too 

 dry through not getting the benefit of 

 the water raised from lower depths by 

 this means, but this is a false alarm 

 as four feet of well drained soil will 

 hold between the soil particles about 



twelve hundred tons of water to the 

 acre, which is nearly one-third of our 

 average annual rainfall and enough for 

 any crop; besides this would be re- 

 plenished by every rainfall. Then 

 there is the fact that rains bring down 

 nitrogen amounting to several pounds 

 per annum, as well as carbonic acid, 

 which has a solvent effect on the soil. 

 Now, experiments conducted by unim- 

 peachable authorities have shown that 

 shallow drains carry away much more 

 plant food than the deeper drains do, 

 simply because the rain is filtered 

 through a greater depth of soil into 

 the deep drains. 



Drains are not put down from three 

 to four feet to protect them from any 

 possible action by frost, as in coun- 

 tries where frost hardly ever goes in a 

 foot these depths obtain, though in the 

 New England climate there is danger 

 to shallow drains through heaving of 

 the soil, as in resettling there is a 

 chance of disturbance of the alignment 

 which would be fatal to the drain, and 

 some very soft tiles may go to pieces 

 through getting frozen, as you have 

 seen soft bricks do. On the score of 

 economy the deeper drains have some- 

 thing on the shallow ones, as the shal- 

 low drains, to be effective, must be 

 closer together, which will entail a 

 greater cost for tile and which will 

 more than offset the extra foot or eigh- 

 teen inches of digging in the lesser 

 number of deeper ditches. I might 

 quote the late Colonel Wearing, who 

 was perhaps the greatest drainage en- 

 gineer that this country has ever had, 

 and Josiah Parkes who was for many 

 years the drainage engineer to the 

 Roval Agricultural Society of Great 

 Britain. I say, I might quote these 

 and other eminent authorities at con- 

 siderable length to support my conten- 

 tion that shallow drainage is wasteful, 

 inefficient, and therefore wrong, but 

 for fear of wearying you I will desist. 

 There is. however, one other question 

 on drainage that I wish to ask and 

 answer, which is: 



Why Is Porous Material Harmful? 



Why is it harmful to put crushed 

 stone, gravel or other porous material 

 in direct contact with tile drains? 

 First, because the best authorities on 

 drainage condemn it. some of them go- 

 ing so far as to advise the use of good 

 stiff clay for the first foot over the 

 drains. Secondly, because you are aim- 

 ing to have the water flow up into the 

 drains from the bottom and not per- 

 colate in from the top. Third, because 

 water with free material such as grav- 

 el to pass through ranidlv down to the 

 drain will carrv a lot of fine silt which 

 may get into the drain and cause seri- 

 ous trouble. Then, if further reasons 

 are wanted, there is the cost, which 

 would be a serious item on any large 

 job and, besides, it would be spending 

 money on something more apt to do 

 harm than good. 



Why the Talk? 

 Mr. Arnold Bennet deplores the gen- 

 eral tendency of mankind to let their 

 mental machinery rust in their crani- 

 \im. If anything I have said this eve- 

 ning shall be the means of stimulating 

 any one of you to do a little more seri- 

 ous thinking of the "whvs and where- 

 fores" of your daily work. T shall feel 

 abundantly repaid for any little effort 

 that 1 have p>it forth in coming before 

 you this evening. 



