1460 HORTICULTURE 



Roots : Restliarrow, clcampane, bistort, bryony, carex, couchgrass, comfrcy, chicory, 

 dock, dandelion, polj-pody, soapwort, Solomon's seal, tormentil, valerian. 

 Biilbs : Colchici:m. 

 Fruits : Whortleberry, rarawaj'. 

 Buds : Poplar, pine. 



Various: Cherry stalks. Horse Chestnut. 

 Marine plants : Corsir-an Moss, laminaria. 



Some plants because of the high prices that they command on ac- 

 count of the variety of ways in which they are used and their world-wide 

 consumption, are cultivated on a large scale. The most notable among 

 these are : belladonna, (of which the price has risen from about 7 % ^ to 

 8s 6d per lb), marsh mallow, mallow, mullein, henbane, borage, chamo- 

 mile, peppermint, valerian, aconite, balm, hyssop, sage, male-fern, black- 

 currant, horse-radish, scurvy grass, parsley, coriander, angelica, small- 

 centaury, gentian, sweet marjoram. Attention is also drawn to the culti- 

 vation of saffron and mustard. 



HORTicui.TURE 1084 - SummeF Treatment of Greenhouse Soil. — grben, w. j. and green, s. n. in 



Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulletin Xo. 281, pp. 53-68, 5 fig. -j- 2 diagrams. 

 Wooster, Ohio, 191 5. 



For an interval of six to ten weeks during midsummer, vegetable 

 greenhouses usually stand idle, because vegetables grown in the open 

 air are abundant and cheaper. The greenhouse grower does not consider 

 it necessary to renew the soil annually, an operation which is decidedly 

 costl}'. The general opinion is that the intense heat under glass during 

 July and August, together with the dryness of the soil, will destroy all 

 insect life as well as fungi and bacteria. This view is open to serious doubt. 

 In order to determine the practical difference between the various methods 

 of treating the soil during the summer months when cultivation is stop- 

 ped, experiments have been carried out at the Ohio Station greenhouses. 

 The following methods of treatment have been compared : 



New Soil Plot. Each year, just before the crop was to be planted 

 in the autumn, the entire soil of this plot was removed and replaced with 

 fresh soil. This soil was the ordinar}' " Sod compost " prepared accor- 

 ding to the usual Ohio methods. The spring crop of tomatoes received a 

 light mulch of manure. 



Straw Mulch Plot. This and the succeeding plots were of soil that 

 had been cropped for at least three seasons. Immediately after the 

 crop was removed each spring this plot was given a covering of from four 

 to six inches of wheat straw. Both the straw mulch and the manure 

 mulch plots were kept well watered during the summer, though excessive 

 wetness was avoided. Most of the straw was removed before preparing 

 this bed for the autumn crops, as it decayed but little and could not be 

 worked into the soil. A covering of straw was given to the spring crop 

 of tomatoes, just as the frtiit began to ripen. 



Manure mulch plot. This plot w^as treated in the same way as the 

 preceding one, except that the straw was replaced by a mulch of very 

 fresh manure. The latter was sufficiently decomposed by autumn to 



