94 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



January, 



^^mmM»^. 



What Causes Tomato Rot? 



O. H. MAHAN, CHENANGO CO., N. Y. 



It is variously claimed that this disastrous 

 disease is the result of either extremes in tem- 

 perature, an exceedingly wet or dry season, 

 the using of plants grown from seed saved 

 from a previously affected crop, etc. Now 

 while I would not say that these causes may 

 not tend to this effect, yet I am inclined to the 

 belief, based on experience, to attribute it 

 more directly to the fact that the plants had 

 suffered a sudden check at some period of 

 their growth. 



Each spring I raise large quantities of gar- 

 den and bedding plants^ 

 Tomatoes being one of the 

 principal ones of the for- 

 mer. After being trans- 

 planted once or twice in 

 the boxes or "flats" in 

 which they are grown I 

 usually set them in the 

 open ground quite closely 

 together, removing them 

 from there as wanted for 

 selling. I usually try and 

 leave a plant every three 

 or four feet in the row to 

 mature its fruit. 



The foregoing is what 

 was done the past season, 

 and now the point I am 

 trying to make is this: 

 plants were taken from 

 this bed and removed to 

 three different locations in 

 town widely separate, 

 combining at least two 

 very different soils, and in 

 each instance three fourths 

 of the fruit borne on these vines were 

 affected with rot at the blossom end, while 

 the plants left remaining in the rows bore 

 exceedingly fine fruit perfectly free from 

 the affection. Now why was it? 



Certainly the season was the same in each 

 case and they were all from the same seed. 

 To my mind it was clearly the cause given 

 above; that at the time they were taken 

 from the bed and set out, the weather being 

 very dry, the plants sustained a check in 

 their growth which so weakened theii- 

 vitality that they became an easy prey to 

 their most common ailment. Care should 

 therefore be exercised at all times in setting 

 such plants to arrange to do so in a wet or 

 cloudy time and thereby remove the ten- 

 dency to this fatal disease. 



high is the appreciation of the value of 

 botanical knowledge that in the parks of 

 even the smaller cities a portion of the land 

 is usually devoted to a systematic botanic 

 garden. It is gratifying, therefore, to see 

 that an interest is at last being awakened in 

 this matter in some quarters of America. 

 The people of New York city, for example, 

 are quite earnestly agitating the subject of 

 a botanical garden in their Central park, as 

 may be seen from the following account 

 from the Herald of that city. It is a subject 

 that .should be agitated in other cities also. 

 " The prominent florists of this city, in 





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Pig.m. 



Botanical Gardens in America: In- 

 terest in the Subject in New 

 York City. 



When it comes to the making of large out- 

 lays for magnificent parks and garden cem- 

 eteries, the cities and towns of America in 

 this latter part of the nineteenth century, 

 no doubt excel those of all other countries. 



But, in what some would term a charac- 

 teristic American way, we seem to have more 

 regard to grand general effects in our parks 

 and park systems than to that completeness 

 of detail which should make the work also 

 in the greatest degree useful. We plant 

 thousands of ornamental trees of large 

 variety in these, biit where is the park in 

 which the trees and other plants are syste- 

 matically and plainly labelled for theeduca- 

 tion of the public? Ijarge sums of money 

 are annually spent by the managers of parks 

 for bedding plants to please the eye only, 

 and which pass entirely away with one 

 sea-son's use, but in what American city 

 does the park system include anything wor- 

 thy of being called a botanic garden where 

 instruction may be coupled, with the admir- 

 ation of plant beauty and the breathing of 

 pure air? 



In these latter respects we stand far behind 

 our European brethren, for in Europe so 



„ £-»re-t.^-^«i-. S<^^i-e ^SfT. TO },NCH. 



A one-fnurth Acre Garden, arranged after the Chart on opposite page. 



interviews published in the Herald, showed 

 conclusively that we are in urgent need of 

 the study ground that would be afforded by 

 a botanical garden. The necessity admitted 

 the next thing to be done was to find out 

 how such an institution could be established. 

 Consequently I called at the Corporation 

 Counsel's office in order to obtain a legal 

 view of the situation. 



" Sections H94 and and 69.5, Consolidation 

 act, say in effect that the Park Department 

 shall have the power to establish and main- 

 tain in Manhattan Square or in any part of 

 Central Park, a botanical and a zoological 

 garden, and that admission thereto shall be 

 either free to the public or on the payment 

 of a small fee. 



" The management of said garden may be 

 delegated to any society heretofore incor- 

 porated but the above mentioned grounds 

 shall always be under the control of the 

 park department. 



" 'I'his was interpreted to mean that the 

 botanical garden would be ostensibly under 

 the control of the Park Commissioners and 

 that they would police the grounds, but the 

 Park Board is willing to have some proper- 

 ly qualified society manage the proposed 

 botanical gardens. 



"President Robb of the Board of Park 

 Commissioners, declared himself a warm 

 supporter of the idea. He said: 'We suffer 

 considerably from the want of a botanical 

 garden. The proposition to establish one in 

 New York forms a splendid opportunity for 

 some rich man to hand donm his name 

 to posterity by founding it and thus benefit- 

 ing the whole community. All suggestions 

 are welcome, and if any society is prepared 

 to take the initiative the Park Board will be 

 pleased to consider them. The direct man- 

 agement of such a garden is a specialty and 

 should be in competent hands. 



" 'I ^^■ould suggest, for instance, that a 

 school of gardening should be established 

 in connection with the botanical garden and 

 perhaps the Bureau of Design, of the Park 

 Department, might be converted into a 

 school for landscape gardening, for it is 



very hard to get competent landscape archi- 

 tects. We want them now and shall need 

 them more and more when we get to 

 work on the new parks.' 



" 'We should have everything good here 

 that they have in the great cities of Europe. 

 We have great wealth and a great nation 

 behind us. So far as the idea of making 

 the botanical garden a State affair is con- 

 cerned I am opposed to it. I am in favor of 

 home rule. If the State feels the want of a 

 botanical garden let the State establish 

 one at Albany.' 

 " Park Commissioner M. C. D. Borden 

 said: 'The argument that, 

 as we could only give 

 about twenty .five or thirty 

 acres to the proposed 

 botanical garden in Cen- 

 ttal Park an admission fee 

 would have to be charged 

 to prevent overcrowding, 

 is not a good one. The 

 public should have free 

 admission into public 

 grounds. I feel very 

 strongly in this matter 

 and shall be pleased to 

 meet members of the Hor- 

 ticultural or any similar 

 society and discuss the 

 matter with them.' 



" Mr. Peter Henderson, 

 one of the oldest seeds- 

 men and greenhouse pro- 

 prietors in this city said: 

 'When the subject of New 

 York city having a botan- 

 ical garden under the con- 

 trol of the Park Commis- 

 sioners is proposed, every one interested in 

 horticulture, will most heartily acquiese. 



" It should, in my opinion, be controlled 

 by the City rather than by the State, and, if 

 possible, be located in Central Park, for 

 even if a hundred acres of the Park were 

 devoted to such a purpose it would not in 

 any way lessen it as a breathing space; it 

 would simply change the landscape to be 

 one of instruction as well as ornament, and 

 if its management be properly administered 

 by practical horticulturists— not by kid 

 glove professors, or worse yet, political place 

 hunters — it would be of vast benefit. 



" 'There is no botanical garden worthy 

 of the name in this country except at Wash- 

 ington. The superintendent there, William 

 R. Smith, has probably no peer as a botan- 

 ist in this or any other country, and is 

 enthusiastic in his work. But the way that 

 the United States doles out its appropria- 

 tions for botanical science is miserly 

 compared with that of England and other 

 European countries. 



" 'The Botanical Garden of Kew, near 

 London, has been not only a great filed of 

 instruction for the masses, but it has also 

 served as a training school for horticultur- 

 ists not only for p]urope but for America, as 

 is well known by the fact that many gradu- 

 ates from Kew are prominent in this coun- 

 try both as managers of private horticul- 

 tural establishments and as . successful 

 commercial gardeners. 



" 'In this country there is estimated to be 

 nearly two hundred thousand men engaged 

 in commercial horticulture in its various 

 branches, employing many millions of capi- 

 tal, so it can easily be seen that a botanical 

 garden would be valuable as a training 

 school as well as a pleasure-giving result.' " 



Coal Ashes as a Fertilizer. 



These contain little or no plant food. 

 They, however, exercise a beneficial effect 

 on heavy clay soil by preventing baking and 

 increasing the capillary power for water. 

 They form an excellent mulch. 



