March 10, 1917 



HORTICULTUEE 



303 



ent season, one set being fertilized 

 with acid phosphate at the rate of 80 

 pounds per 100 cubic feet of soil, the 

 other with an equal money value of 

 bone meal, calculated to be 42.8 

 pounds per 100 cubic feet on the basis 

 of acid phosphate and bone meal cost- 

 ing $15 and $28 per ton, respectively. 

 Each of the fertilizers costs more to- 

 day but the ratio of cost of one to the 

 other is about the same. The plants 

 are two year old stock. I will let the 

 results speak for themselves. 



Effect of fertilizing with bone meal 

 and acid phosphate: 



KlUarney 

 Bone Meal Acid PhospUate 

 Total number per 



144 plants 1918 2391 



Average per plant. 13.3 16.1 



Richmond 

 Bone Meal Acid Pbospbate 

 Total number per 



144 plants 1792 2069 



Average per plant. 12.4 14.3 



The advantage in favor of acid phos- 

 phate is about 2% flowers per plant, 

 which I consider a rather remarkable 

 endorsement of acid phosphate, since 

 the figures represent the production 

 only from September 15 to December 

 18, 1916. 



The Illinois Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station, if these figures are veri- 

 fied by the results of the remainder of 

 the year, will be able to make a sec- 

 ond recommendation of practical im- 

 portance to the rose grower, viz., that 

 with an ecjual investment for fertilizer, 

 acid phosphate will yield much the 

 larger returns. 



Will Phosphate Fertilizer Increase 

 the Carnation Crop? 

 In a discussion about a year ago be- 

 fore the American Carnation Society. 

 I stated that no extensive experiments 

 had ever been published showing that 

 phosphatic fertilizer would increase 

 the crop of carnations, but I believed 

 on general principles that it might well 

 do so. I am able to give you the re- 

 sults of experiments with White En- 

 chantress and Champion, the figures 

 being for flowers picked from Septem- 

 ber 15 to December 18, 1916, (acid 

 phosphate used at rate of 80 pounds 

 per 100 cubic feet of soil). 

 Effect of Acid Phosphate on Carnation 

 Production 



No. Total Ave. 



Plants Production Production 

 White Knchant- per plant 



ress with Acid 



Phos 352 1650 4.7 



White Enchant- 

 ress without 



Acid Phoa 33S 1394 4.1 



Champion with 



Add Phos 350 2266 6.5 



Champion with- 

 out Acid Phos. 356 2219 6.2 

 The increase with acid phosphate 

 fertilization is around one flower per 

 two plants, which appears more signifi- 

 cant when stated as an increase of 500 

 flowers per each 1000 plants in the 

 bench. If these results are borne out 

 by the rest of the experiment. I will 

 consider the point raised as settled in 

 favor of fertilization with acid phos- 

 phate, although apparently carnations 

 are not the heavy feeders roses are, 

 nor receive such marked benefit by 

 fertilization. 



Variability in Production of Rose.5 and 

 Carnations 

 In studying the production of some 

 1700 rose and 1400 carnation plants 

 during the present year, some data of 

 great interest and fundamental im- 



A CALIFORNIA POTATO. 



C. W. Ward sends us the photograph 

 from which this greatly reduced en- 

 graving is reproduced to show what 

 the soil of Eureka, Cal., is capable of 

 doing to reduce the high cost of living. 

 Mr. Ward says that this "spud" was 



14 in. long and weighed 4% pounds. 

 It is the variety known as the Dutch 

 Red. One 16 inch specimen was cut 

 into six pieces and baked and six peo- 

 ple failed to eat it all. It was as 

 white and mealy as one could wish. 



portance to florists have resulted; I 

 will include enough of them here for 

 sake of illustration and comment on 

 their significance. The figures below 

 are for the production of flowers by 

 Ophelia. Hoosier Beauty, Killarney 

 and White Killarney plants from Sep- 

 tember 15 to December 18, 1916, each 

 plant being considered separately and 

 arranged in the table according to the 

 number of flowers produced as indi- 

 cated in the first column at the left. 



Variability in Production by Rose 

 Plants. 



No. of 

 Flowers 



per Hoosier White 



Plant Ophelia Beauty Killarney Killarney 



i '.'.'.'.'.'. 1 12 — — 



-> — 15 — 2 



6 2 21 2 4 



7 4 25 1 4 



.S 11 , 18 7 4 



9 16 21 7 6 



10 15 10 14 13 



11 12 11 15 8 



12 19 2 16 18 



l.". 15 2 18 16 



14 18 1 12 13 



15 15 — 9 9 



18 13 1 7 12 



17 1 — 7 14 



IS 1 — 7 6 



19 — — 10 6 



20 1 — 4 5 



21 — — 1 3 



22 — — 3 — 



23 — — — — 



24 — — 2 1 



25 — — 1 — 



26 — — 1 — 



After discarding that portion of the 

 column in each case which contains 

 less than ten plants, there remains a 

 portion near the center where the pro- 

 duction varies as much as one hundred 

 per cent. Thus with Ophelia, 13 plants 

 produced 16 flowers while 11 plants 

 produced only eight flowers. If it were 

 possible to raise the average produc- 

 tion from the level of eight to that of 

 sixteen, an increase in production of 

 one hundred per cent would result, and 

 that without further investment for 

 greenhouses or labor. Since an in- 

 crease of 20 per cent by the use of a 

 fertilizer is considered large, the im'- 



portance of the question relative to 

 those relating to the use of fertilizers 

 is apparent. 



Possible causes of this variability 

 are (1) relative location on the bench 

 with respect to illumination, drying 

 out, or temperature, (2) imperfections 

 or poor quality of manetti stock, al- 

 though some results obtained previ- 

 ously on own-root stock showed me 

 that this cannot be the sole cause, (3) 

 variable vigor and productiveness of 

 plants due to conditions of growth 

 previous to their being set in the 

 bench, and (4) variability of vigor and 

 productiveness in the plants from 

 which the scions of tnese plants were 

 taken. This seems to me to be the 

 fundamental question; whether plants 

 obtained by the growth of scions from 

 high-producing plants will themselves 

 be high-producers in comparison to 

 these plants whose "parents" (if I may 

 thus loosely term them) were low pro- 

 ducers; and so fundamental and prac- 

 tical a question is it that you may ex- 

 pect results to be reported at some 

 future meeting on this subject. Carna- 

 tions show a similar variability and 

 what I have said above for roses ap- 

 plies to them, also, with the exception, 

 of course, of the possible influence of 

 manetti roots. 



COVER ILLUSTRATION. 



We have the pleasure of showing tor 

 the first time a picture of the new 

 Lfelio-Cattleya Gen. Pershing, which 

 will be one of the sensations of the 

 New 'iork Show next week. The pol- 

 len parent of this hybrid was Laelia 

 tenebrosa var. Uncas — a tenebrosa 

 with Indian red sepals and petals, the 

 other parent being an extra fine Cat- 

 tleya Trianae. The hybrid itself is a 

 rich dark flower showing some of the 

 Lselia characteristics, with Indian red 

 sepals and petals. The picture is much 

 reduced from the original size. 



Norwich, Conn. — Otto Ernst gave a 

 very instructive talk on rose culture 

 and grape vine pruning before the 

 Norwich Grange, on Wednesday even- 

 ing. February 28. 



