December 8, 1906 



horticulture: 



621 



como in for that grand week, plans are laid months 



aliead, yet oven then they very often fail. 



"The best laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft a-gley." 



The poet even took a hand at the rose business. 

 Other business men have their ups and downs, but can 

 come better to their calcuhitions than the florists, for 

 the weather is an all important factor in the green- 

 house. 



When I used to grow own root stock in benclies, in 

 three inches of soil, they could be forced more in win- 

 ter, or in other words, rould be handled better than 

 plants grown in solid beds. I have never seen them. 

 but have heard and read niucli about pipes being run 

 under solid beds and tluis getting as good control in 

 the winter months as is the case with benches. 



There is no set rule as far as I know to get roses in 

 for holiday week; bull)s ran be handled so as to be 

 brought in flower at a certain time, but as I said before, 

 the condition of the weather has almost everything to 

 do with other crops being brought in at that time. 

 Judgment and skill can be brought into play to help 

 out greatly. There are various ways to hasten or re- 

 tard the growth, but even iinder the most expert hands 

 these often prove injurious in their after effects on the 

 plants. Some times we gain a cent and lose a dollar, 

 and to the inexperienced man it is a dangerous experi- 

 ment. I find the best way is to keep the plants grow- 

 ing at the usual temperature and then after the holiday 

 is over they are in better condition to work than if the 

 life had been forced out of them, and any loss of crop 

 sustained will be made up later, as the health of the 

 plants lias not been impaired. 



I remember a year ago the crops in two of the houses 

 here were about one week late. There was another 

 party who would have been in just right, but we had a 

 spell of warm weather Just tlien which brought the 

 crops of that party forward before the time and brought 

 the crops here in exactly right ; it was luck, pure luck. 



People are willing to pay good prices for flowers on 

 that day and they expect and sliould get fresh flowers — 

 value for their money consistent with the scarcity of the 

 product. The wholesaler gets an idea from his grower, 

 perhaps a week ahead, as to the condition of the crops 

 and a rough estimate as to the quantity expected. The 

 retailer gives his order and expects fresh flowers. 

 Should tiae grower "salt" the flowers, as has been done 

 in former years, the retailer loses perhaps a good cus- 

 tomer, because the goods w-ere not up to the standard 

 ordered and expected : the wholesaler perhaps got the 

 goods thrown back on his hands; then there is a growl 

 from the grower because he didn't get the fancy prices 

 lie expected. 



We all liave birthdays: that is one thing we cannot 

 avoid. Some of us as w-e grow older feel as chirrup as 

 those younger. Horticulture has again rounded out 

 another birthday; the youngster seems to be keeping 

 pace, considering his years, with his older brethren. 

 There is alwavs room in this world for any legitimate 

 business. Hats off. gentlemen, to the thriving young- 

 ster. 



The Diet of the Carnation 



This is a modern age, an age in which iutiuiry is be- 

 ing made into the reason of things. The day is rapidly 

 passing when one can sit passively by and let things 

 take their natural course or unnatural course, as it 

 may be. It is being proved even to the most skeptical 

 florist that to make equal success with his competitors 

 he must use all the best and latest cultural methods 

 known. 



The man who is raising live stock will first consider 

 a place for the stock to be kept in and then the feed 

 that they will require to sustain life and growth. The 

 florist must and does consider the housing of his car- 

 nations first. He should next consider the feed he is 

 going to give these carnations to bring them to best ma- 

 turity. How many florists are there who very seriously 

 consider the feeding of their plants? Is it any wonder 

 that they are ahvays saying that Smith or Jones must 

 have a soil very nnich superior to theirs? 



To come down to the bottom of things, is it the 

 superiority of Jones' soil itself or is it the plant food 

 that Joues adds to his soil that counts? I am of the 

 opinion that the food is the important factor in many 

 cases and will tell you why. 



Plants must feed just as surely as man himself. Man 

 chooses his food, steak, potatoes, pie, and insists on 

 having a variety. The carnation insists on a variety, 

 too, nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash, and don't grow 

 well if it does not get it. The man wants the thing 

 that he gets the least of — the pie for instance. The 

 carnation seems to run along the same perverse lines, 

 and what it craves and seldom gets its proper share of 

 is potash. 



Now how does it happen that the carnation and 

 many other plants go lacking for this important food — • 

 potash ? It is not because potash is more exjxinsive 

 than the other foods, as bone meal, because the fact is 

 that potash costs no more than phosphoric acid and 

 only about one-third as much as nitrogen. It is be- 

 cause the carnation can't call out through a megaphone 

 Potash ! Pota.sh ! but must sit down and sulk and re- 

 fuse to grow until it does get it. The florist knows that 

 the carnation don't grow^ properly, but he is frequently 

 in the dark as to the why. 



The chemist now comes to the florist's aid in this 

 extremity. When he analyzes the carnation he finds 

 that a single plant removes from the soil in one growing 

 season 99.12 grams of air dry material containing 1.948 

 grams of nitrogen. 0.7:54 grams of piiosphoric acid and 

 3.510 grams of potash. It can easily be .«een from a 

 comparison of these removals that the carnation must 

 have as a diet nearly twice as mucli potash as nitrogen 

 and about five times as much potash as ])hosphoric 

 acid. 



Xow as bone meal, the couiiiion fertilizer used by 

 florists contains no |)otash. and animal manures con- 

 tain it in far too small proportions, it is as plain as the 

 nose on your face tliat the carnation grower should 

 satisfy the cravings of his carnations by giving them a 

 lilieral ration of potash. This can be jirovided through 

 any of the potasli salts, such as muriate of potash or 

 sulphate of potash or from the best grades of bone and 

 potash fertilizer. 



I.. S. TTvssKi.ArAN-. 



