THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



21 



HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE 



DISTORTING THE FACTS. 



X(i mutter l;i>w liaid tlu' >ciL'iiti't trie- to di-M'miiuito ;iei-ur;ite 

 inlormalion, he finds some irresponsible just iilu'iid of liiin with 

 a story of plants or animals so wonderful that a public, edu- 

 •cated via the moving picture route, much prefers it to any 

 sober statement of fact. It is easy for the reporter on the 

 hunt for a "human interest" story to contort the facts until 

 they have little semblance to the truth in his efforts to entertain 

 the ]uiblic. The advertiser of a set of natural history books that 

 are at present being introduced to the public asks in one of 

 his circulars. "Do you know that the dew plant kills and eats 

 every fiy that alights on its petals by ensnaring with a sticky 

 substance?" We confess that this is new to us. We have seen 

 the sun-dew but never one that caught flies with its petals. In 

 another place this same individual informs us that his books will 

 tell us why an ant's head may often be seen walking by itself 

 without a body. Since the ant's legs are attached to its thorax 

 and not to its head we hope we may never encounter this re- 

 markable sight. We know of several people who would never 

 -seek for the explanation of such a phenomenon in a book. It 

 would be the Keeley Cure for theirs. Much as we value knowl- 

 edge, we incline to agree with Josh Billings tliat "It is a good 

 deal better to know less, than to know so much that ain't so." — 



Exchange. 



STARTING SMALL AND DELICATE SEEDS. 



By far tlic simjdest and most sncccs-tul way to start very 

 small seeds I think is the following: Fill a porous pot of suitable 

 size with garden soil made fine and free from lumps. By jarring 

 the pot settle the soil moderately. Do not press the soil. Leave 

 the surface granular. Onto this surface scatter the small seeds. 

 Now, jarring the pot lightly a time or two will settle most of the 

 seeds between the soil grains, though most of the seeds will re- 

 main in sight. 



Now place the pot in a vessel containing an inch or two of 

 Avater and place all in a sunny and warm situation. The surface 

 soil will soon become moist and will remain so as long as suf- 

 ficient water is kept at the base of the pot. If the seeds be good ■ 

 one can watch them strike root and develop into plants of suita-' 

 ble size for handling. They they can be pulled out of the loose 

 earth and placed in suitable positions for further develo]>meiit.— 



Exchange. 



THE FUEL VALUE OF WOOD. 



The fuel value of two pounds of wood is, roughly. ei)ui\aleiit 

 to that of one pound of coal. Tliis is given as the result of 

 certain calculations now being made in the forest service labora- 

 tory, U. S. Department of Agriculture, which show also about 

 how many cords of certain kinds of wood are required to olrtaiu 

 an amount of heat equal to that in a ton of coal. 



Certain kinds of wood, sucli as hiidcory. oak. beech, birch, liard 

 maple, ash, elm, locust, longleaf pine and cherry, have fairly high 

 heat values, and only one cord of seasoned wood of these sjjccies 

 is required to equal one ton of good coal. 



It takes a cord and a half of shortleaf pine, hemlock, red gum. 

 Douglas fir, S3'camore and soft maple to equal a ton of coal, and 

 two cords of cedar, redwood, poplar, catalpa, Norway pine, 

 cypress, basswood. spruce and white pine. 



Equal weights of dry. non-resinous woods, however, are said 

 to have practically the same heat value regardless of species, and 

 as a consequence it can l)c stated as a general proposition that 

 the heavier the wood the more heat to the cord. Weight for 

 weight, however, there is very little dilTerence between various 

 species : the average heat for all that have been calculated is 

 4.000 calories, or heat units, per kilogram. A kilogram of resin 

 will develop 9,400 heat units, or about twice the average for 

 wood. As a consequence, resinous woods have a greater heat 

 value per pound than non-resino\is \voods. and this increasel 

 value varies, of course, with the resin content. 



The available heat value of a cord of wood depends on many 

 different factors. It has a relation not only to tlie amount of 

 resiu it contains but the amount of moisture present. Further- 

 more, cords vary as to the amount of solid wood they contain, 

 even when they are of the standard dimension and occupy 12S culiic 

 feet of space. A certain proportion of this simce is made up of air 

 spaces between the sticks, and this air space may be considerable 

 in a cord made of twisted, crooked and knotty sticks. Out of the 

 128 cubic feet a fair average of solid wood is about ,S0 cubic feet. 



SAYS PLANTS EXHIBIT SYMPTOMS OF DEATH. 



That plants, like animals, respond to anaesthetics, drugs and 

 other stiniidants. and exhibit all the symptoms of death agonies, 

 was demonstrated to a large audience of Washington scientists in 

 a lecture at the Cosmos Club recently by Prof. J. Cliunder Bose. 



a native of Calcutta, India, one of the world's authorities in tho 

 field of electrical |)hysiology. 



I'rof. Hose, who has liad conferred upon him by the British 

 Govenuiient the high distincticms of the decoration of the Com- 

 panionslii]is of the Star of India and of the Inilian Kmpirc, speaks 

 English tluently, and for more than an hour entertained his audi- 

 ence with an account of his principal discoveries of plant life 

 phenomena. 'These discoveries show that there is not a single 

 physiidogical phenomenon in the animal which is not duplicated 

 in the plant. 



The Bengalese scientist conducted an cx]ieriment with an ap- 

 paratus invented by him which enables the plant to show on 

 the screen that it feels or responds to all kinds of nu>chanical 

 and chemical injuries nuudi as animals do, and that at the 

 moment of deatli convulsive movements take ])lace. 



By pinching a caulifiower plant with this a])paratiis the sensa- 

 tion experienced by tln' |ilant was thrown on the screen in the 

 form of a light wave. 



LAST FALL'S EXPORTATION OF HOLLAND BULBS. 



So much has been said during tlie fall of 1914 in regards to few 

 if any bulbs having been exported from Holland to the warring 

 nations, and buyers of bulbs having been given to understand 

 that the great influx of bulbs from Holland into this country was 

 solely due to some of large Holland exporters liaving hail their 

 fine bulbs packed for their regular English and German trade, 

 and not being able to export them to Germany and England, 

 being ciunpelled to send them to America, making buyers believe 

 that the bulbs that were being sold at such low prices repre- 

 sented the cream of the Holland stock, which in other years was 

 shipped to England, Germany and Russia, it may be quite 

 ajiropos to here give correct statistics as to the actual exports 

 of bulbs during the month of September, 1914, from Holland, in 

 comparison to the total actual exports in the correspondiu'^ 

 montli of 1913. The quantities represent kilograms (one kg. is 

 about 2.21 lbs.). 



September. Septemlier. 

 Export of llower liulbs to: 191.'5. 1914. 



U. S. America and Canada 999,.50O 1.599.1 00 



■-<Sreat Britain and Ireland 3.5.SS.400 2..S29..'i0() 



■Sweden -. ITS.SOO l.OTfi.OOn 



.Denmark l.-,S.4no 1.56.200 



.'Norway .'il .400 90.000 



Germany and Austria 1.44:i.:iOO 2..30G.9(I0 



Belgi\uii and France 4.'i9.1()0 48.900 



Russia 10.-). 700 None 



Other countries ;").■), lOO 33,100 



The increase of the export to Sweden is. of course, due to Russia 

 inqiorting via that country: the heavier export to America was 

 largely due to the bulbs being of extraordinary quality last year, 

 and the bulbs were consequently very nuich heavier. It was also 

 due to heavy export for auction sales, a certain element in the 

 bulb section growing almost exclusively for auction Business in 

 London and Berlin, and. finding these markets practically closed, 

 or at least rather risky, dumping their auction i)roducts on the 

 American mark<'t. Tlie exportation of actually sold bulbs to the 

 warring countries during .September. 1914, must therefore be 

 considered to have been entirely normal. 



THE POPLAR TREES' SOLILOQUY. 



By !Mabe! Hemming. 

 "Two striplings." when you planted us beside the garden gate. 

 And we are very proud to think we've grown so tall and straight. 

 We tower above the houses, and the other trees around — 

 It looks a long way to us from oiu' top leaves to the ground. 



Within the garden where we've grown associations past — 

 Bind us with many links so strong all tliroughout life they'll last. 

 For time nuist many changes bring and friends will come and go. 

 But still 1 eside tlu' garden gate your pojilar trees will grow. 



We'd rather give a better shade, but contented we must be — 

 To grow up tall and straight instead, just like a "poplar tree" 

 .\nd fill the niche that nature made just as for us she wills 

 Mite of the "Mighty .\tom" which destiny fulfills. 



We love to watch the little boys who play around at ball. 



To us the happy times they have, are happiest of all, 



.And when old time has run its course and they've to manhood 



grow^n 

 "The ]>opIars father planteil" will be treasures all their own. 



Though storms may twist and turn our boughs, and bend us half 



way down, 

 We'll still rise up and hold o\n- own, in spite of nature's frown. 

 And here's the lesson we might teach, in everything "he straight," 

 .Tust like the "poplar trees" that grow beside the garden gate. 

 ' — From National Nurseryman. 



