208 



forming crusts, or choking the drainage of the pot, the water should never 

 be poured quickly through the spout of the watering pot. In plants set in 

 pots and sunken, a hose should be used, or, in pots set on forms in con- 

 servatories, a slender and long spout, giving only a gentle stream of water. 

 One should avoid holding the stream of water at the base of the stem, 

 which is often entirely white as a result of incrustations of lime. 



Use of Saucers Under Pots. 



In house plants the use of saucers under pots is general. This saucer 

 is necessary for preserving cleanliness on the window sill and on the flower 

 table, but is usually injurious for the plants themselves. No matter whether 

 the pots be watered from above or by soaking up water from the saucers, 

 the soil will almost always take up too much water. Many plant lovers con- 

 sider this condition advantageous. The result, however, is a choking of the 

 roots at the bottom of the flower pot. The decay of the roots continues 

 gradually upward and finally shows itself in the dying of the edges of the 

 leaves. If these symptoms appear, the plant is, as a rule, lost to the ama- 

 teur, but the gardener can often cure it. For the amateur, who has no 

 warm bed at his disposal, we would recommend setting the sick plant in pure 

 sand and placing it in a warm, half shady place. 



The RuNxixG out of Potatoes. 



In discussing the disadvantages of heavy soils, we should consider the 

 point of view, repeatedly brought forward in practical circles, that our 

 potatoes "run out," i. e., gradually lose their good qualities and degenerate. 

 Some people would explain this by holding that, in the customary method 

 of propagation by planting tubers, one really propagates asexually, without 

 interruption, an individual once produced from seed and that, thereby, an 

 organism so long lived must at last show the weakened condition of old 

 age. A proof of this is found in the retrogression in the starch content of 

 our favorite older varieties as, for example, in the Daber potato. 



According to our point of view, the cause of the supposed running out 

 lies in the lack of foresight of the agriculturalist in growing varieties on 

 heavy soil which lia\e been produced on light soil. 



We refer in this connection to Ehrenberg's work^ on the results of 15 

 years experiments at the "Deutsche Kartofifelkulturstation." The average 

 yield of all the varieties grown seemed to increase constantly from 1889 to 

 1903. In regard to the "Daber" potato, the yields decreased only on heavy 

 soil which is easily explained since in Daber a very light, dry, sandy soil 

 predominates. If newly grown seed of this variety was planted in heavy 

 close soil, it gave better results than the form which had been culti^•ated there 

 for some time. The same new seed, however, planted in sandy soil, usually 

 gave a poorer result when compared with the naturalized plant. \\'e find 



1 Ehrenberg, B., Der Abbau der Kartoffeln. Landw. Jahrb. Vol. XXXIII; cit. 

 Centralbl. f. Agrikulturchemie, 1905, p. 235. 



