474 



/i O R T I C U L T U R E 



November 3, 1906. 



SEED TRADE TOPICS 



Latest reports indicate that the 

 onion set crop is smaller in quantity 

 and poorer in quality than earlier 

 advices seemed to show. Louisville 

 is quoting vellows at $1.25 and whites 

 at $1.60 per bushel of 32 lbs. Chicago 

 prices are slightly higher. These 

 prices of course are for immediate 

 shipment. Last year attention was 

 called to the absurdity of calling 32 

 lbs of onion sets a bushel, at this 

 time of year, and it has been criticized 

 before. At some remote date in the 

 misty past, some believer in short 

 weights and measures established 32 

 lbs. as the standard, and it has re- 

 mained so ever since. It is surprising 

 that seedsmen and buyers of sets 

 should continue such an unjust prac- 

 tice. At this season of the year a 

 bushel of hard clean sets will weigh 

 nearer 40 than 32 lbs. Sometimes in 

 the spring, when sets are thoroughly 

 drietl out, a bushel, with a liberal 

 quantity of chaff added, might not 

 weigh over 32 lbs., but never in the 

 fall if the sets are worth wintering. 

 It does not seem a difficult problem to 

 solve, yet committees of seedsmen 

 have wrestled with it, and given it up. 

 They should try again. 



small seeds are much easier to esti- 

 mate, than peas, beans, or corn. In 

 the first place the acreage controlled 

 by any one grower of small seeds is 

 usually much smaller than that con- 

 trolled by the grower of peas and 

 beans: then the small seeds mature 

 earlier and are usually in store 

 earlier than peas and beans, and as to 

 beans, is is often mid-winter before 

 some crops are delivered. If seeds- 

 men wanted guesses, it would not be 

 so difficult to forecast crops, but they 

 want data on which to base prices, 

 and to enable them to cover possible 

 shortages, therefore estimates mu.st 

 bear some resemblance to ultimate de- 

 liveries. It looks as if we would have 

 to plod along for some time yet in 

 the way we have been going. 



There is much complaint against 

 seed growers because of their failure 

 to furnish definite crop reports earlier 

 in the season than most of them are 

 able to do. Much of this criticism is 

 the result of impatience but more of it 

 due to ignorance of actual conditions. 

 Now before anything approaching a 

 reliable forecast can be made, the 

 grower must actualy have in store 

 not less than 50 per cent, of his crops, 

 then if his crop inspection has been 

 thorough, and he figures correctly, he 

 can furnish a fairly reliable estimate. 

 Sometimes however unexpected con- 

 ditions nullify the knowledge gained 

 from the most painstaking crop in- 

 spection, such for instance as rain 

 during harvest, which occasionally 

 ruins a good crop after it is made. 



The length of time required after 

 harvest to give an intelligent crop 

 estimate depends much on the crop. 

 Crops such as onion seed, radish, 

 turnip, cabbage, and in fact nearly all 



JOHNSON'S 



Highest Quality 



BULBS 



Tulips, Paper Whites 

 Narcissi, White Romans 

 Sweet Scented Peonies 

 Mushroom Spawn, etc, 



WRITE FOR OUR CATALOGUE - DON T WAIT 



JOHNSON SEED COMPANY 



217 Market St. PHILADELPHIA, PA. 



H«rb«rt W. Johnion of the late firm of 



Johnson &. Stoket, Preiident I 



BELGIAN GLASS. 



The export of window glass from 

 Belgium to the United States for the 

 fiscal year ending June 30 amounted to 

 $1,053,823, against $328,579 during the 

 same period of 1905, an increase of 

 over 70 per cent. Window glass is 

 classified according to thickness, as- 

 follows: 



Watson S. Woodruff, of S. D. 

 Woodruff & Sons, Orange, Conn., has 

 been nominated by the republicans of 

 his district as their candidate for the 

 State Legislature. As a nomination is 

 usually tantamount to election, .Mr. 

 Woodruff with his great popularity in 

 the district is practically certain of 

 election, and Orange will have a rep 

 resentative of great energy and 

 ability. Success to him. 



The failure of the radish seed crop, 

 chiefly in France, where most of the 

 radish seed of commerce is grown, 

 puts this specialty on the anxious seat, 

 -Market gardeners in France are glad 

 to buy radish seed that will give even 

 60 per cent, of germination. There is 

 also a decided shortage of garden beet 

 seeds. 



Prices have advanced greatly on 

 scarlet Due van Tholl tulips— in fact, 

 on all scarlet tulips and on Kaisers 

 Kroon, both in Europe and this coun- 

 try. London dealers are paying from 

 2j; to 28 shillings for scarlet Due and 

 45 to 48 shillings for Kaisers Kroon. 

 an advance of about 40 per cent. Lon- 

 don buys later than we do. There is 

 a general scarcity in Holland of many 

 of the higher priced tulips, due to 

 heavy purchases by the farmers, who 

 have been running heretofore on 

 cheap varieties but have now turned 

 their attention to the choicer sorts. 

 I One of these bulb farmers is known 

 ' to have invested some $40,000 in high- 

 priced tulips this season, such vari- 

 eties as Murillo, Proserpine, etc.. for 

 i seed stocks. This, of course, will re- 

 sult three or four years hence in lower 

 market prices for these sorts, but in 

 the meantime slightly higher values 

 may be looked for. 



Conrad Appel, the wholesale seed 

 house at Darmstadt, Germany, estab- 

 lished in 1789, was awarded at this 

 year's Internationa! Exhibition, at 

 Milan, Italy, the sec»nd prize, the 

 "prize of honor," for his ornamental 

 lawn; and for a fine show case, con- 

 taining all kinds of grass, clover and 

 agricultural, deciduous and evergreen 

 tree seeds, grass seed mixtures, and 

 a complete collection of rare conifer 

 cones, the highest award, the "Grand 

 Prize." 



Clais. 



Glass for photo, 

 graphy 



Plain Glass 



Semidouble glass 



Double glass.. 

 Treble glass • . 



Weight in 



ouDces per 



Square pODge. 



14 



I 15 and 16 

 \ 21 

 < 24 

 \ 26 

 28 

 32 and 36 



Thickncis 



in 

 millimeters. 



1.5- 

 1.6 and 1.7 



i. 



* 



4 



z 



2.0 



3 5 and 3.9 



The qualities usually manufactured 

 are of 14 to 28 ounces, viz., of 1 1-2 to 

 2 millimeters thickness. There are 25 

 window-glass works in Belgium, all in 

 the province of Hainaut, three of 

 which are controlled by American 

 companies. The aniy^ production 

 amoimts approximately^! about 300,- 

 000,000 square meters, 90 per cent, of 

 which are exported. 



Huntington & Page, seedsmen, have 

 moved from their recent location to 

 210 N. Delaware St., Indianapolis, Inri. 



TURF AND MANURE. 



Vlce-Consul C. Karminski. of Seville,, 

 writes concerning the effect of turf up- 

 on ordinary manure, as follows: 



"Director Immendorff, of the agricul- 

 tural test station at Jena (Germany), 

 advocates the use of turf as a means 

 of preserving manure. Results ob- 

 tained through experiments in and 

 about Jena demonstrate that the use 

 of turf is far more efficient in pre- 

 venting loss of nitrogen, while fermen- 

 tation is in progress, than is sulphate 

 of lime, phosphate of lime, sulphuric 

 acid, etc. Turf permits the escape of 

 but very little nitrogen, while the ap- 

 plication of the above named chemi- 

 cals is most deficient in result and ex- 

 pensive. The discovery of Professor 

 Immendorff merely corroborates ex- 

 periments of a similar nature con- 

 ducted by Italian agriculturists. 



The Brooklyn Times devotes an en- 

 tire page of its issue of Oct. 20 to 

 "Pleasure and profit in bulbs and 

 house plants" under the various head- 

 ings of "Forms of Vegetation Which 

 Should be put in Soil Now," "How to 

 get best Results from Bulbs Planted 

 at this Season," "Value in Potted 

 Plants," "To be in Fashion," "Raising 

 Mushrooms." "Landscape Work a Fac- 

 lor in Land Development," "Decora- 

 tive Plants," "Does your Horse Muti- 

 late Trees?" "Some Popular Plants for 

 the Home Garden." 



THE CHRYSANTHEMUM, by 

 Arthur Herrington. The most com- 

 plete and practical book on the cul- 

 tivation of the chrysanthemum pub- 

 lished for Americans. Illustrated. 

 Price 50c. postpaid. Horticulture Pub. 

 Co., 11 Hamilton Place, Boston. 



HEALTHY VIOLETS. Send us 25 

 cents for George Saltford's invaluable 

 book on Violet Culture. The whole 

 truth and nothing but the truth. 



