September 26, 1914 



HOKTICULTURE 



453 



previously stated, the style of plants they are putting out 

 will not do for forcing, having been pushed along into 

 late growth without any attempt to ripen up the wood. 

 But, nevertheless, tliey are healthy sturdy plants and 

 such stock could, by special culture and attention, be 

 brought into shape for forcing purposes one year or two 

 years hence. Among the many letters whicli have come 

 to us from various parties interested in this problem of 

 home production is one from Antoine Wintzer of the 

 Conard & Jones Company. Mr. Wintzer tells of the 

 extensive propagation of azaleas at Flushing, N. Y., 

 fifty years ago by the late J. E. Trumpy. At the time 

 of the outbreak of the civil war Mr. Trumpy had no less 

 than 100,000 home grown azaleas in different sizes but as 

 a large part of the then demand for these plants came 

 from the South the growing of this specialty was dis- 

 continued. Mr. Wintzer further reminds us that the 



Camellia Japonica was also grown here in large quan- 

 tities half a century ago and the quality of the plants 

 was not surpassed by any produced in Europe. James 

 McHutchison contends that the prestige employed by 

 European grown goods of this class is not that they are 

 cheaper than can be produced here — which they arc not 

 — but is due to the intelligence, loyalty and patience of 

 the foreign growers, who love their plants and watch over 

 them as they would over their children. The care and 

 attention thus lavished upon the plants in their produc- 

 tion is the great factor in their superiority and unless 

 growers here take the same devoted interest in the work, 

 even a Chinese wall will avail us but little towards cap- 

 turing tlie market on these specialties. The communi- 

 cation from Otto Katzon?tein on the tree seedling indus- 

 tiy, which appears below, will no doubt prove interest- 

 ing to our readers, in this connection. 



HOME GROWN TREE SEEDLINGS. 



Editor Horticulture: 



There are but very few nurseries In 

 the United States which have, thus 

 far, paid any attention to the raising 

 of tree seedlings or rose stocks com- 

 mercially, and a small number ot 

 these, only, have produced near 

 enough to make the least impression 

 on the grand total used. 



The uniform explanation given us 

 was that land was too expensive and 

 labor too inexperienced to undertake 

 the growing of seedlings. We never 

 could see just how this figured out. 

 It may be true that the labor general- 

 ly employed in nurseries is not as well 

 trained as growers of young stuff as 

 are the European workmen. The 

 short-coming could be easily remedied 

 as knowledge is gained by experi- 

 ence. It is undeniable that our own 

 w'orkmen are much more adapted to 

 acquaint themselves with new meth- 

 ods and there is no reason why very 

 soon seedlings could not be produced 

 at as low a cost as imports. * 



Our seed has to be exported now 

 and the seedlings have to be returned 

 to this country. Freight, duty, and 

 commission have to be paid tliereon 

 and other expenses have to be met. 

 Adding them to the general prices 

 paid European growers doubles the 

 cost of the plants, and we really can- 

 not see why plants grown here sys- 

 tematically could not be put on the 

 market for at least the same price the 

 consuming nurserymen pay now. 



We do not believe that every nur- 

 sery and every nurseryman will lend 

 themselves to the growing of seed- 

 lings. This branch will always be a 

 specialty and those who find it pos- 

 sible to make it a success will have 

 opened a way to themselves for large 

 profits. 



We cannot grow bulbs everywhere, 

 but there are some growers in this 

 country now who compete most suc- 

 cessfully with the exporters. Not 

 every section of this cotintry is adapt- 

 ed to the growing of wheat for maca- 

 roni, but those which are produce flour 

 and a finished article equal to that 

 imported from abroad. 



We might go on indefinitely enum- 

 erating articles which we tliought in 

 former years would have to be Im- 

 ported but which now are made here. 

 There is no reason why we must con- 



tinually depend upon Europe for tree 

 seedlings. 



Now is the most opportune time to 

 break away, especially as the entire 

 supply of our European friends will 

 probably have to be used for their 

 own replanting, and there is no rea- 

 son why the tables might not be 

 turned and, instead of paying import- 

 ers, our nurserymen would become, in 

 time, exporters of at least certain 

 kinds of young nursery stock. 



We have gone into this rather more 

 in detail than we had anticipated our- 

 selves when we started this letter, 

 but the subject is one very near to us, 

 and one to which we have given a 

 great deal of thought for a number of 

 years. 



We have not the least intention to 

 step on the toes of any of our foreign 

 friends, whom, in the past, we have 

 supplied very largely with tree seeds 

 and whom we hope to continue to 

 count among our valued customers in 

 the future. 



There will always be imports of 

 seedlings, but there should also be 

 some home production. 



Very truly yours. 

 Otto K.^tzenstein & Co. 



Atlanta, Ga. 



REMEDIES FOR POTASH SHORT- 

 AGE. 



Various suggestions have been 

 made in regard to the steps to be 

 taken by farmers in reference to the 

 shortage of potash in their fertilizers, 

 caused by the greatly reduced ship- 

 ments of potash from Germany since 

 the first of August. Most of the fer- 

 tilizer companies have endeavored to 

 make the potash on hand go as far as 

 possible by selling for the present 

 brands of complete fertilizers contain- 

 ing only 2 or 3 per cent of potash and 

 witholding from sale brands contain- 

 ing larger amounts. 



The suggestion that some or all of 

 the potash be replaced by phosphoric 

 acid is absurd, for every school boy 

 knows that one plant food cannot take 

 the place of another. There are some 

 indirect fertilizers, such as lime, gyp- 

 .sum and salt that can release a lim- 

 ited amount of potash from some soils 

 that contain hydrated silicates of 

 alumina and potash. But if these 

 soils have already been treated with 

 lime or have received repeated dress- 

 ings of the usual forms of fertilizer 

 containing soluble phosphate with its 



accompanying gypsum, then the pot- 

 ash in the hydrated silicates has to a 

 large extent already been replaced 

 and the use of more lime or gypsum 

 or salt could not be expected to re- 

 lease much additional potash. Ground 

 limestone or oyster shells act too 

 slowly to be used as potash releasers. 



The residue of soda left in the soil 

 by nitrate of soda is more effective in 

 releasing potash than is gypsum and 

 hence goods in which the nitrogen is 

 largely in the form ot nitrate of soda, 

 may have a special value in the pres- 

 ent emergency. 



It is often stated that decaying or- 

 ganic matter releases potash from. 

 the soil but there seems to be no di- 

 rect evidence of this. On the con- 

 trary. Dr. S. Peacock states in the- 

 American Fertilizer of Sept. 5, 1914: 

 "Several thoroughly competent re- 

 searches have shown that decaying 

 organic matter has little effect on con- 

 verting inert mineral plant food in 

 the soil into available form." 



In any soil the amount of potash 

 capable of being released by these 

 indirect means is a very small frac- 

 tion of the total potash in the soil, 

 most of which exists in a form about 

 as soluble as window glass. There is 

 no known profitable method for ren- 

 dering this inert potash of the soil 

 available fast enough to provide for 

 profitable crops. Whatever temporary 

 expedients we may employ in the 

 present emergency, we must keep in 

 mind that the potash thus removed 

 from the semi-available soil reserves 

 must later be replaced if we are to 

 mainiain the soil's productiveness. 



There is danger in the statement 

 that farmers have been using an ex- 

 cess of potash. Crops use on the av- 

 erage about two and one-half times as 

 much potash as phosphoric acid, while 

 the average fertilizer sold contains 

 only half as much potash as phos- 

 phoric acid; yet no one claims that 

 we are using too much phosphoric 

 acid. The potash remaining from 

 previous fertilization is practically 

 nothing except in the limited areas 

 where a ton or more of fertilizer has 

 been used per acre on truck crops. 

 Very rarely is half as much potash ap- 

 plied to the wheat, oats, corn or cot- 

 ton crop as the crop removes. 



The potash mines are so numerous 

 and the stocks on hand so large that 

 supplies can be promptly sent forward, 

 as soon as European conditions per- 

 mit freight shipments to be resumed. 

 H. A. Huston 



