THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



227 



makes a most graceful and beautiful salad and have a 

 very delicate flavor. 



The blossoms of the red clover are used as salad. 

 The tiny flowers are plucked from the blossom head 

 and used by themselves \vith a salad dressing or with 

 some of the clover leaves which have a sharp, peppery 

 taste and are strongly nitrogenous and therefore ex- 

 cellent for the health. 



In Florida the flowers of the banana plant are now 

 being utilized as a food and they are also gathered and 

 dried to use further north. 



Alfalfa and dandelion flowers are in high favor as 

 food. The alfalfa flowers are excellent for the health 

 as they are so rich in organic salts. The alfalfa plant 

 strikes its roots very deeply into the subsoil and 

 brings up into the flower the richest supply of mineral 

 elements, iron, sodium, potassium, suljjhur and cal- 

 cium. The flowers are also excellent for nervous 

 trotibles. 



The tubers of flowers are cooked and made into very 

 attractive dishes. For example, there is the small 

 tuber of the tuberous nasturtium, which is very de- 

 licious either cooked or raw, and has a spicy flavor 

 somewhat like a radish. The small bulbs may be 

 eaten served like radishes or cooked in a variety of 

 tempting wa}'s, boiled saute, curried, fried or baked. 



The tuber or bulb of the dahlia has been for some 

 little time a favorite vegetable. These bulbs are de- 

 licious and may also be eaten either cooked or raw. 

 For salad, sliced raw, they have a very agreeable taste, 

 and cooked they furnish a novel and delectable dish. 



The hollyhock is one of the flowers that serves for 

 both raw and cooked dishes. It is of the mallow fam- 

 ily and has "cheeses" as the seed cups are called when 

 yoting. These cheeses are very rich and nutty in 

 flavor and may be eaten raw as a salad or cooked and 

 eaten with butter or crearn satice. The flowers cif the 

 hollyhock are used for salads and they are filled witli 

 natural salts. One ma}- make a salad of the tender 

 leaves, the seed buds anfl the petals of this flower. To 

 make a hollyhock salad, gather the newly blown flow- 

 ers and a number of the small seed cups. Strip the 

 petals from the flowers and arrange them on a plate 

 with the inside part of the seed ctips scattered over 

 them and serve with a French dressing. The flowers 

 are dried in the Orient and make a very palatable food 

 in winter, as the flavor is particularly delicious when 

 the dried petals are moistened by chewing. 



Marigolds make a pungent and tempting flower 

 salad. The petals are jnAled from the stems and 

 chopped with flaked nuts and dressed with any favorite 

 form of dressing. One with honey in it is particularly 

 good. To make this salad select the largest flowers 

 and mash them. Then strip ofT the deep gold petals, 

 add half a cupful of chopped or flaked nuts of any kind 

 to mix well together. Place in the center of a salad 

 dish and garnish the edge with the whole flowers. A 

 more beautiful dish would be hard to find. For the 

 honey dressing use two parts olive oil, one part lemon 

 juice and one quart clear strained honey, beat well to- 

 gether and add at the last the stiffly white of an egg. 

 Salt to taste. 



Pansy salad is excellent from a health point of view, 

 for the pansy is a very wholesome herb. The flavor 

 is like that of wintergreen. Both the foliage and flow- 

 ers are used. 



A very rich and succulent salad is made from white 

 water lilies. The petals are pulled from the flower 

 head and chopped. They are usually combined with 

 grated nuts such as almonds or pignolias, and a salad 



dressing used with honey and oil, as described above, 

 in it. A single perfect water lily blossom may be 

 placed in the center of the dish of salad as it comes to 

 the table. 



THE AGRICULTURAL VALUE OF LIME. 



In a report recently issued by the United States 

 Geological Survey on the source, manufacture and 

 tise of lime, some very interesting and educational 

 data is given on the use of lime as a fertilizer which 

 embody the views on this subject of a number of our 

 most prominent agriculturists. 



The report dealing with the subject of agricultural 

 lime states that the use of lime as a fertilizer dates 

 from the inception of modern scientific farming. 

 Agricultural chemists have shown that there are five 

 or six difl:erent functions which lime may perform to 

 benefit a soil, which may be summarized briefly as fol- 

 lows : 1 — It is an essential element of plant food. 

 2 — It aids in the conversion of decaying organic mat- 

 ter into humus. 3 — It forms compounds with the hu- 

 mic acids which tend to prevent their being leached 

 otit of the soil and lust. 4 — By producing proper sani- 

 tary conditions the growth of injurious bacteria is 

 largely prevented, while the growth of nitrifying bac- 

 teria is encottraged. These nitrifying bacteria con- 

 vert the nitrogen of the humus into a forrn stich that 

 it is available as a plant food. 5 — Lime aids in the 

 liberation of potash and phosphorus from inert com- 

 pounds. 6 — It tends to flocculate clay soils, rendering 

 them granular and more porotis. 



Obviously, permanent results can not be expected 

 unless care is taken to insure the presence of some or- 

 ganic fertilizer at all times. Lime used alone may be 

 temporarily beneficial, but will eventually be harm- 

 ful ; when used with cowpea vines it becomes more 

 efficient for general purposes than almost any other fer- 

 tilizer. Of course, lime is not beneficial to all crops to 

 the same extent, and not all soils need lime. 



Thus some of the common plants which are stated 

 by this report to be benefited by lime are spinach, let- 

 tuce, beet, celery, onion, cucimiber, cantaloupe, as- 

 jiaragus, cabbage, peanut, rhubarb, jiea, jnimpkin, 

 bean, tobacco, alfalfa, clover, barley, wdieat, oats, 

 timothy, gooseberry, currant, orange, quince, and 

 cherry. Indian corn is only slightly benefited. Plants 

 which are said to be slightly injured by lime are cot- 

 ton, tomato, cowpea, concord grape, peach, apple, and 

 pear, and those really injured are radish, flax, black- 

 berry, black raspberry and cranberry. Whether a soil 

 will respond to liming or not depends on the amount 

 of availaljle calcium oxide which it already contains. 

 Unfortunately chemical analysis does not distinguish 

 between the total calcium oxide and that which is 

 available to plants. Probably the best indication of 

 the need of lime is the failure to obtain a good crop of 

 clover. 



Statement of the ownership, management, circnlntion, etc., required bv 

 the .\ct of .^uglIst 24, 1912. of THE CXRHENERS' CHRONICLE OF 

 .-\iMERIC.\, published monthly at New York, N. Y.. for April 1, 1915. 



lulitor, M. C. Ebel, Madison, N. J.: manager editor, M. C. Ebel. Madi- 

 son, X. J. : business manager, Geo, .'\. F.urniston, Madison, N. J. : pub- 

 lisher. The Clironicle Press, Inc., 286 Fifth avenue. New York, N. Y. 



Owners (If a corporation, give its name and tlic names and address of 

 stockholders holding 1 per cent, or more of total amount of stock. If not 

 a corporation, give names and address of individual owners.) : The Chron- 

 icle Press. Inc., 286 Fifth avenue. New York, N. Y. : M. C. Ebel, Madison, 

 N, T.; Ceo. A. Burniston, Madison, N. J.; M. E. Rurniston, Jersey City, 

 N. t, : J. A. lUtrniston, Jersey City, N. J. 



Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders, holdine 1 

 per cent, or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities 

 (If there are rone, so state.): There are no bondholders, mortgagees or 

 other security holders. 



GEO. A. nURNISTON, Business Manager. 



Sworn to and subscribed before nic this 12th dav of March, 1915. 



(Seal.) F. IRVING MORROW, Notary Public. 



(My commission expires June 21, 1915.) 



