14 



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The Florists^ Rcvkw 



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August 8,. 1916. 



BBEAEING IN. 



This picture might be called "The 

 long and the short of it, or why some 

 peonies are better worth 8 cents than 

 others are 4 cents," but instead let it 

 be called *'The Self-Commencer." The 

 j^oung man is Harold Amling, son of 

 E. C. Amling, the Chicago wholesale 

 florist and Oak Park bank president. 

 When the young man left school this 



spring it was his pleasure to begin in 

 the flower business at the beginning, a 

 sort of self-starter as it were. He put 

 on a rubber apron and is learning the 

 art of grading flowers and acquiring 

 skill in packing them for shipment — 

 he is learning the business from the 

 bottom up, as his father did, instead 

 of from the top down, as one so situ- 

 ated might be excused for wanting to 

 do. 



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BUILDING UP 

 OUR SOILS ^ 



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ACID PHOSPHATE AND BONE. 



Some More Comparisons. 



It was with no slight degree of in- 

 terest that I read, in The Review of 

 June 15. F. W. Muncie's article en- 

 titled ''Acid Phosphate or Bone 

 Meal?" Though he appeared to criti- 

 cise certain statements made by me in 

 The Eeview of May 18, under the head 

 of "Building Up Our Soils," yet I 

 freely admit that his article is espe- 

 cially valuable to us as growers and is 

 an important supplement to "The Re- 

 port on Fertilizer Work at Urbana, " 

 presented before the convention of the 

 Illinois State Florists' Association and 

 printed in The Review of March 9 

 and 16. 



However, I believe that Mr. Muncie's 

 criticism of some of my statements in- 

 dicates that he did not get hold of my 

 real meaning. My article was written 

 with special reference to a summary of 

 reports regarding fertilizer work, a 

 summary that had been sent to me with 

 a request for my opinion. The reports, 

 as summarized, were such as to lead 

 one to suppose that they were intended 

 as a comparison of animal manure and 

 commercial fertilizer and that they fa- 

 vored the use of commercial fertilizer, 

 particularly the use of acid phosphate. 

 I tried to emphasize the fact that there 

 can be no real competition between ani- 

 mal manure and commercial fertilizer 

 for greenhouse use, as each plays its 

 own particular part and both are essen- 

 tial in the maintenance of the fertility 

 of the soil. 



When Using Old Soil. 



Moreover, I had in mind that large 

 class of florists who are so located that 

 it is becoming increasingly difficult for 

 them to secure suitable soil each year 

 and hence it is necessary for them to 

 utilize all the old soil that was in the 

 benches the previous year. I am in no 

 way opposed to the use of acid phos- 

 phate in greenhouse soils. On the con- 

 trary, I recognize in it a most valu- 

 able addition to the list of fertilizers. 



Yet I do not believe that acid phos- 

 phate can take the place entirely of the 

 best grades of steamed bone meal or 

 bone flour. In cases where the same 

 soil must be used from year to year, I 

 have found, in my own experience of 

 about twenty-five years in the growing 

 game, that bone meal is one of the 

 most lasting fertilizers, due to the fact 



that the phosphoric acid content is solu- 

 ble only in the presence of carbonic 

 acid and other vegetable acids, becom- 

 ing available as the plants are in need 

 of it, and therefore is less liable to loss 

 through leaching. Besides, wherever 

 iron hydrate exists in the soil in any 

 appreciable quantity, the reverted form 

 of lime phosphate as found in bone 

 meal is much less liable to become 

 united with the iron hydrate than is the 



Harold Amling Breaking In. 



case with the water-soluble form, as 

 found in acid phosphate. 



Loss Through Leaching. 



The question of soil leaching is most 

 important in connection with the fer- 

 tilization of soils on the bench. The 

 average depth of the soil on green- 

 house benches is, as Mr. Muncie states, 

 about five inches. This shallowness of 

 the soil, in conjunction with the almost 

 perfect drainage obtainable, gives pos- 



sibilities for large losses of the more 

 soluble of the fertilizer elements 

 through the process of leaching. Acid 

 phosphate is much more subject to loss 

 through this process than is bone meal, 

 and this particular feature accounts in 

 great measure for the lack of danger 

 of ill results from overfeeding with 

 acid phosphate. It is with these facts 

 in view that I prefer to consider acid 

 phosphate rather as an auxiliary fer- 

 tilizer, for the obtaining of immediate 

 results. 



It is not possible, I think, to make 

 any fair comparison of the respective 

 merits of bone meal and acid phosphate 

 without taking into consideration the 

 nitrogen content in bone meal. 



In view of the fact that the avail- 

 ability of the phosphoric acid in bone 

 meal is dependent to a great extent on 

 th6 amount of organic matter in the 

 soil that is subject to decomposition, ex- 

 tremely light sandy soils and heavy 

 clay soils that are deficient in organic 

 matter should be avoided. 



An Overdose of Bone Meal. 



The danger in an overdose of bone 

 meal arises principally from the eon- 

 tent of animal matter and ammonia, 

 and while ammonia is a valuable addi- 

 tion to plant food and has an important 

 bearing on increasing the availability 

 of the phosphoric acid content, due re- 

 spect to its existence must be given and 

 sufficient quantities of water must be 

 used to prevent firing. In my own 

 practice, however, I have never experi- 

 enced any difficulty along this line, not- 

 withstanding the fact that I have used 

 finely ground steamed bone in the soil 

 for roses in certain experiments, at the 

 rate of twenty pounds per hundred 

 square feet of bench surface, with no 

 appreciable injury to the plants. 



As is well known, the soils generally 

 used by the best rose growers run 

 much higher in organic matter than is 

 the case with soil under ordinary field 

 conditions. Aside from the fact that 

 sod soil is invariably used when obtain- 

 able, it is also customary for growers 

 to use not less than one part of ma- 

 nure to three parts of soil, and, after 

 the plants are thoroughly established, 

 mulches of stable manure are added. 



Bone Meal in Bose Soil. 



The gradual decomposition of this 

 mass of organic matter gives a con- 

 stant supply of carbonic acid, as well 

 as other vegetable and humic acids that 

 act as a ready solvent for the reverted 

 form of lime phosphate contained in 

 bone meal. This transformation of the 

 more or less insoluble forms of lime 

 phosphate, through the action of car- 

 bonic acid, into soluble and available 

 phosphoric acid, is constant and rapid 

 under greenhouse conditions, and for 

 this reason alone I would consider bone 

 meal much more suitable for the fef- 

 tilization of greenhouse soils than for 

 field use. At the same time, it has 

 been observed by Professor Hilgard 

 and others that, with the best grades 

 of finely ground steamed bone, all of 

 the phosphoric acid may become avail- 

 able in field practice in a single year. 



Owing to the fact that the great ma- 

 jority of rose growers carry over roses 

 in the same soil for from two to four 

 years, would it not seem advisable to 

 use principally those fertilizers that 

 will build our soils up to the highest 



