278 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



December. 1912. 



An Impression May Here be Gained of the Extent of the Fruit, Flower and Honey Exhibits ^it the Recent 



Horticnltural Exhibition in Toronto 



and trees for public places must be much 

 older than this. But small nursery trees 

 eighteen inches to two feet in height 

 should make good Christmas trees in ten 

 years. It will thus be seen that to grow 

 trees especially for this purpose one must 

 be prepared to wait some time, but there 

 is much cheap, rough land which might 

 be used in this way. Moreover, a very 

 large number of quite small trees are 

 used every year, both for decorative pur- 

 poses and for Christmas trees for the 

 younger children who amuse themselves 

 for a long time by decorating them and 

 by playing Santa Claus. 



AVOID PIKES 



A word of caution should be given to 

 those who are about to have a Christmas 

 tree for the first time. Beware of fire. 

 While candles on trees make the latter 

 look much more beautiful than they are 

 without them, they are dangerous unless 

 great care is exercised. I was at a 

 Christmas tree once where the person 

 who was dispensing the gifts in the guise 

 of Santa Claus was dressed in a suit of 

 cotton wool. In bowing to the people 

 the wool caught fire. He rushed about 

 and nearly set fire to some ladies' 

 dresses, but fortunately a woollen shawl 

 was thrown over him in time and the 

 fire extinguished with but severe burns 

 to himself. 



.Mmost every Christmas one hears of 

 fatalities, hence we prefer electric light 

 if it can be obtained, and no light on 

 the tree if it cannot be had. There are 

 so many bright decorations made spe- 

 cially for Christmas trees nowadays that 

 the tree can be made beautiful even with- 



out candles. Small, red apples attached 

 to the tree are used by the Germans in 

 their decorations, a custom which may 

 well be followed by Canadians. 



The Use of Fertilizers Defended 



By Leslie Emslie C. D. A., Toronto, Ont. 



While appreciating the desire of Dr. 

 J. B. Dandeno, of Bowmanville, Ont., 

 to contribute to our knowledge of the 

 fertilizer question, as shown by his ar- 

 ticle on this subject that apjjeared in the 

 November issue of The Canadian Horti- 

 culturist, we regret to note the tenacity 

 with which he clings to old and almost 

 entirely discredited theories. His state- 

 ment that at least half the sum spent on 

 commercial fertilizers in the United 

 States and Canada is wasted, may be a 

 slight exaggeration, but doubtless con- 

 siderable waste results from ignorance of 

 the meaning of fertilizer analyses and of 

 the requirements of different crops and 

 soils. 



Dr. Dandeno undertakes to correct 

 our misconception of what constitutes 

 lack of fertility. This condition, he as- 

 serts, is not dependent on the lack of 

 plant food he mentions in passing that 

 he never met a man who could give a 

 fair definition of "plant food. " This be- 

 ing the case, we shall not make the at- 

 tempt, believing that our efforts to do 

 so to the satisfaction of Dr. Dandeno 

 would be as futile as to undertake the 

 definition of that popular dish of "human 

 food" known as "boarding-house hash." 

 W'e only know that plants draw on the 

 soil and air for certain substances, en- 

 tering into their composition, and if these 



substances are not plant foods or con- 

 stituents of the same, let them be called 

 by any other name. 



Dr. Dandeno says: "Plant excretions 

 are the chief cause of infertility, and it 

 is in the decomposition of such material 

 that the application of fertilizers of any 

 kind proves of value." It is gratifying 

 to note that, in Dr. Dandeno's opinion, 

 fertilizers may sometimes, if even in an 

 obscure way, prove beneficial ; we had 

 feared to hear that their application, like 

 a dose of salts, might only tend to ag- 

 gravate the condition referred to. 



Dr. Dandeno might state with equal 

 aptitude that the "food which we eat 

 does not nourish the body, but serves as 

 an antidote to the effects of the previous 

 indulgence of our craving for meat and 

 drink." We should endeavor to dispel his 

 concern regarding the ruthless destruc- 

 tion of bacterial life in the fertilizer 

 manufacturing process, with the assur- 

 ance that the majority of fertilizing 

 materials are of mineral origin and have, 

 therefore, no association with bacteria. 



Those of organic origin will be taken 

 care of by the favorable bacteria (includ- 

 ing the nitrifying bacteria, mentioned by 

 Dr. Dandeno) which are present in all 

 well-tilled soils. We agree with the 

 idea conveyed in the statement that "cer- 

 tain fertilizers are adapted to certain 

 crops and to certain soils, and the only 

 way to find out which is to try these by 

 using them on part of the field so as to 

 compare. " 



In concluding his article Dr. Dandeno 

 states that "no mistake is made in ap- 

 plying barnyard manure or other excreta, 

 but in buying commercial fertilizers 'pa- 

 tent medicine chances' are taken." From 

 this statement one can readily infer to 

 what he likens his own prescriptions. 

 We find no fault with Dr. Dandeno's 

 quite natural aversion to patent medi- 

 cines, but with his inclination to relegate 

 commercial fertilizers to the same class. 



Not wishing to encroach too far, we 

 conclude with the reminder that com- 

 mercial fertilizers are not supposed to 

 be a substitute for, but rather a supple- 

 ment to, barnyard manure, and that the 

 chief value of the latter, as Dr. Dandeno 

 rightly infers, lies in its physical action 

 on the soil. 



Peach Trees from Seed. — Seeing an 

 article in The Canadian Horticlltlr- 

 iST about peach trees, I would say that 

 I have eight strong, thrifty peach trees 

 that came up from stones planted in the 

 chicken yard. Three of them are fully 

 five feet high and I hope to see them 

 bear. If they are half as good as the 

 ones my mother grew on the old farm 

 near Paris, I will be well satisfied. — E. 

 W. Moyle, Lanstaff, Ont. 



The apple barrel is nature's medicine 

 chest. 



