NUMBER OF PLANTS TO THE ACRE. 47 



from their ancestral nature, but maii}^ parental vestiges will never 

 be eliminated from them. A black colored soil will maintain six to 

 eight degrees higher surface summer heat than a light colored 

 soil. Observing growers have noticed that vegetative processes are 

 as completely arrested in carnation plants during extreme periods of 

 summer heat as if the thermometer indicated 32 degrees. For this 

 reason a northern inclination of a carnation field is to be preferred 

 and is a concession to the low temperature relic that still lingers 

 in carnations. 



Carnations in the field are subject to all the troubles that as- 

 sail them on the benches, but the vigor of life from normal condi- 

 tions, forms a greater resistance to their depredations than the 

 artificial restraints of housed plants. The fungus of "root rot" is 

 the most destructive enemy of carnations in the field. There are 

 records of a large per cent of the crop of plants being ruined by 

 this parasite. (See chapter on fungous diseases of carnations). 

 When it is deemed necessary to use liquid fungicides, insecticides, 

 or fertilizers on carnations in the field, the rows of plants can be 

 straddled by a hand cart, holding a vessel containing the material, 

 and with a good spray pump, quite a broad span of the plants can 

 be reached. Incarnation fields of large area, an eight foot road- 

 way is left unplanted at convenient widths for a horse and cart 

 hauling a barrel, for watering or treating the plants medicinally. 

 It should not be forgotten that stirring the soil is a partial antidote 

 for drouth in all soils sufficiently compact to admit of the capillary 

 attraction of sub-surface moisture. 



The number of carnation plants that can be grown on an acre, 

 set fifteen inches apart each way, for hand culture, is nearly 28,- 

 000. If planted six inches apart in the rows, and the rows three 

 feet apart for horse cultivation, about the same number can be 

 grown. 



