1881.] TRANSACTIONS. 35 



place where tliey will get the sun all day, and let them remain 

 till it is time to take them into the house. And this ought never 

 to be delayed till the nights become cold enough to give them a 

 very severe chill. 



I think if people would only try this method once, they would 

 find that a few bushy, well grown plants, will give them more 

 satisfaction than a houseful of stubby things taken out of the 

 garden. 



I am often asked about fertilizers for pot plants. If plants 

 appear to languish from any cause, many people seem to imagine 

 that the soil is not rich enough. It does not occur to them that 

 there may have been errors of treatment which have caused the 

 difficulty and, misled by the crafty term '■'- j^lant food^'' they think 

 by feeding them more they will be all right. And so they often 

 put on enough to destroy tli^ir plants entirely. It is my candid 

 opinion, that the so-called '■'-Plant fooiV in one form or another, 

 has killed a good sized Greenhouse full of plants here in Worcester, 

 within a few years. The tendency is always to use too much. 



If plants are potted in a suitable soil to begin with, and re-pot- 

 ted in a suitable soil as often as they may need it, most kinds re- 

 quire very little extra fertilization. When they become pt^^ bound 

 as gardeners term it, and it is not desirable to use pots of a larger 

 size, some kind of liquid manure can be used to advantage. And 

 it does not make much difference, whether you use some of the 

 various kinds of plant food, or a little Peruvian guano, or the 

 guano from your hen yard. Only you can go to Mr. Kice's and 

 buy twice the bulk of guano for the money you pay for plant 

 food, and about all the good there really is in plant food, I 

 imagine, is from the guano that is in it. At any rate, 1 venture 

 to say, that there is twice the value for plant use in a pound of 

 guano, than there is in any kind of so called plant food. I sup- 

 pose that most people are led into an extravagant use of some 

 form of manure for plants, from the mistaken idea that plants 

 receive the greater portion of their nourishment tin-ough the 

 roots. And so they think to make the plants thrive, just as they 

 would fatten a chicken, by stuffing. It is true, that vegetation 

 generally derives most of its water from the ground through, the 

 roots. And by far the greater portion of all living plants is water. 

 But this water is contained in a wonderful system of veins and 

 cells, which compose the solid portions of the plant. By far the 

 greater part of this is carbon. If the water is dried out, and the 

 carbon burnt, there is a very small residue left. The most of 

 this, probably, comes from the ground ; while it is probable, that 

 the carbon, or nearly all of it, is absorbed from the air through 

 the leaves. 



