HORTICULTURE 



July 26, 1919 



GRASS SEEDS FOR GOLF COURSES AND LAWNS 



RECLEANED CREEPING BENT 



CRESTED DOGSTAIL, CHEWING FESCUE 



SHEEP FESCUE FANCY CLEAN RED TOP 



KENTUCKY BLUE GRASS 



ALSO 



COMPLETE LINE OF LAWN FERTILIZERS 



SHEEP MANURE SCOTCH SOOT 



WOOD ASHES AGRICULTURAL CHEMICALS 



JOSEPH BRECK & SONS 



(CORPORATION) 

 ,, Bulbs, F 



lant: 



51-52 North Market Street, Boston, Mass. 



BRECK ROBINSON NURSERY CO, 



Monroe Station, Lexington, Mass. 



to pledge, we would like to count upon 

 you as a saver. If you care to become 

 a member of our Thrift Society, please 

 sign your name to the attached card, 

 so that proper record can be made. 



"Both Thrift and War Savings 

 Stamps will be for sale at the cage or 

 can be secured from your Department 

 Head. 



"Upon buying your first stamp you 

 will receive an attractive membership 

 button.'' 



W. Atlee Burpee Company. 



A LETTER FROM CALIFORNIA. 

 Redlands, Calif., July 14, 1919. 



Mr. Editor: — Speaking of Quaran- 

 tine No. 37, something much discussed 

 anions plantsmen, and all those whose 

 concerns have to do with horticulture 

 more especially, is it really thought 

 that an order or regulation of this 

 sort will banish forever, or even 

 lessen the evil of any parasites on 

 vegetation? Where I live here on the 

 Pacific slope there are to be found in 

 more or less abundance, accordingly 

 as we are industrious or lazy, every 

 sort of plant bug and fungi parasitic 

 on vegetation, which can endure the 

 cycles of change in the climate. 



It must be the same in New Eng- 

 land and everywhere else on earth. 

 An organism exists where it must. It 

 is not necessary at all that any organ- 

 ism should be a native; only that the 

 environment be suitable within cer- 

 tain limits. The question of import- 

 ance is whether it is the normal con- 

 dition of vegetation to support com- 

 munities of parasites. I will decide for 

 myself that it is not the normal con- 

 dition, admitting freely at the same 

 time however that it is the common 

 condition. To say that and to go no 

 farther would not help matters at all, 

 and it is necessary to cast about a 

 little and see what is the great differ- 

 ence between a normal and the com- 

 mon condition in the case. 



First of all, but only in the broadest 

 sense, one may feel very confident 

 that no plant parasite is a cause of 

 disease in plants, but that certainly 

 parasitism is responsible for a spread- 

 ing and aggravating influence. Wit- 

 ness the annoyance of cooties. In 

 normal times and in a normal environ- 

 ment the cootie, who is always with 

 us, plays the part of an interested and 

 expectant bystander and leads a life 

 which is precarious to the point of 



being able to maintain a mere repre- 

 sentation of his species only, not so 

 much because we fight him, but rather 

 because he is not provided with a 

 meal ticket for one thing, and that too 

 because his preferred provender is not 

 about. 



Gardeners nearly always cultivate 

 pxotic plants, and generally types of 

 those even that are less vigorous than 

 their primal forms. In such a case 

 the gardener must select a suitable 

 environment or create it. It is neces- 

 sary in the majority of cases to create 

 the environment. In the average plant 

 its output of energy to that required 

 is an exquisite balance; if the energy 

 is less or more than the requirement 

 there is at once a condition of disease. 

 Common manifestations of disease 

 due to abnormal root pressure are 

 those excessive exudations upon the 

 leaves, such as those of roses, which 

 invite an attack of mildew: a condi- 

 tion opposite to this to be observed 

 in the same family of plants is that 

 of yellowing, which is a premature 

 ripening, but from the fact that it is 

 premature is destructive. The exces- 

 sive exudation due to the above re- 

 quired pressure is often mistaken for 

 dew. and appears as a spangling of 



