22 



The Florists^ Review 



OCTOBU 80, 1919. 



FEEDING BONE MEAI.. 



Will you kindly tell me the proper 

 amount of bone meal to use on beds of 

 carnations and roses T We are anxious 

 to get it right, yet we are rather un- 

 certain as to just how much should be 

 used on a bench 4z46 feet. 



C. F. Co.— Miss. 



You do not state whether you are 

 just planting or whether your plants 

 are established in the benches. We do 

 not mix bone with our soil at plant- 

 ing time, but rose growers do. A 4-inch 

 potful to each wheelbarrow of soil 

 18 about the right proportion to use for 

 roses. For feeding carnations we use 

 about a 3-inch potful to each row 

 across a 5-foot bench. If you have a 

 mulch of manure on the bench, it will 

 serve to prevent the bone from wash- 

 ing when you water it in. If there is 

 no mulch, you should scratch the bone 

 into the soil before you water. Unless 

 your soil is deficient in phosphoric acid, 

 you should either alternate the bone 

 with sheep manure or, still better, use 

 one of the complete carnation fertiliz- 

 ers. If your plants are growing vigor- 

 ously and need feeding, a light appli- 

 cation of complete fertilizer every 

 three weeks will do no harm. Be care- 

 ful, however, when dark weather sets 

 in, as little feeding is wanted unless 

 there is a moderate amount of sun- 

 shine. Toward spring, when the sun 

 begins to climb, the plants will need 

 it and there is not much danger of 

 overdoing it. A. F. J. B. 



DISEASED CABNATION STEMS. 



I am sending a sample of diseased 

 carnation stems to see if you can sug- 

 gest a remedy or preventive. There first 

 appear brown spots on stem or leaf, 

 which spread till the stem is encircled; 

 then the top wilts. Usually it starts in 

 the leaf socket. My soil is quite sandy. 

 I have used manure, potash, bone meal 

 and sulphate of ammonia. The climate 

 here, south Georgia, has been humid, 

 hot and rainy all summer. The side 

 bench, farthest from the ventilators, is 

 the worst affected. Would any fungicide 

 help them? W. A. D.— Ga. 



The disease your carnations are af- 

 fected with is one of the carnation spot 

 diseases and is one of the most serious 

 of this class of diseases. The fact that 

 it works chiefly on the stems makes it 

 diflicult to reach with the spray. It is 

 brought on by a humid and probably 

 foul atmospheric condition, which is 

 more likely to prevail in your hot south- 

 ern climate than in our northern lati- 

 tude. The excessive rains during the 

 summer were undoubtedly directly to 

 blame for this condition. Cut away 

 every affected branch you can find. 

 Then spray the plants thoroughly with 

 Bordeaux mixture. Keep this up until 



you get control, by which time the 

 weather will probably" be cooler and 

 you will have no trouble in keeping a 

 bracing, dry atmosphere in your houses. 

 As soon as you can run a little fire, it 

 will help, especially if you will paint 

 one of the pipes with a mixture con- 

 sisting of equal parts of sulphur and 

 Ume, mixed with enough water to make 

 a thick paint. A. F. J. B. 



NOT TOO MUCH MANX7BE. 



Can you tell us what to use with blood 

 and bone to make a complete carnation 

 fertilizer, the proportions to use, how 

 much to 100 square feet of bench and 

 how often to apply! 



We are using soil with which no 

 manure has been mixed. It is a good 

 black loam and works easily, however. 



We raked in blood and bone before 

 the plants were set and have given one 

 feeding since. They look fine so far. 



L. P. & S.— HI. 



While you do not state when your 

 carnations were planted in the bench 



and I therefore cannot form any opin< 

 ion as to how well established they may 

 be, yet I feel constrained to caution you 

 against too liberal feeding this early in 

 the season. If you were using a prop- 

 erly prepared soil, I would say hold off 

 the feeding for a time. In the bone 

 and blood you have nitrogen and phos- 

 phoric acid principally. To complete 

 it, you might add wood ashes or ground 

 limestone. I would, however, advise 

 you to make every effort to procure 

 some cattle or stable manure and to 

 apply a mulch before giving any more 

 of the commercial manures. It will 

 not only be good for your plants for 

 the food it contains, but it will also 

 assist you in applying the other ma- 

 terial. By sprinkling it on the manure, 

 you will have an excellent medium for 

 preventing washing when you water it 

 in. If your plants are growing vigor- 

 ously, the mulch will probably be all 

 they will need until after the holidays. 

 The natural fertility of the soil may 

 be sufScient until the roots have worked 

 through it and exhausted it somewhat. 

 By the time the crop comes on, you will 

 be able to determine what may be lack- 

 ing. If the growth is slow, give them 

 nitrogen in the form of dried blood or 

 sheep manure. Some growers use tank- 

 age. If the stems are weak, an appli- 

 cation of ground limestone will help to 

 stiffen them. If the blooms are small 

 and lack substance, the bone might help. 

 But first of all, get some manure and 

 mulch them. A. F. J. B. 



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DEPBECIATION ON GREENHOUSES. 



Please be kind enough to inform us 

 what has been a fair estimate on depre- 

 ciation of greenhouses yearly, in filling 

 out income tax returns. We believe we 

 saw in The Review that it varied from 

 ten to* twenty per cent. Also, please in- 

 form us whether the Commissioner of 

 Internal Bevenue has, under Section 328 

 of the present income tax law, figured 

 the percentage which the tax on repre- 

 sentative corporations engaged in the 

 florists' business bears to their net in- 

 come. If so, please send us copy of that 

 ruling of the commissioner or inform us 

 how to obtain it. B. B. C. — Ind. 



Would any owner of greenhouses sug- 

 gest that the houses would depreciate so 

 that in from five to ten years they would 

 have no value? The income tax law 

 provides that "a reasonable allowance 

 for the exhaustion, wear and tear of 

 property used in the trade or business" 

 may be deducted. The instructions for 

 filling in the return of taxable income 

 state: "The amount claimed for wear 

 and tear or depreciation should not ex- 

 ceed the original cost of the property 

 (or its value March 1, 1913, if acquired 

 before that date) divided by its total 

 estimated life in years. When the 

 amount of depreciation allowed equals 

 the cost of the property (or its value 

 March 1, 1913) no further claim should 

 be made." 



The schedule for the return of cor- 

 poration incomes requires (schedule 

 A 18): 



Submit a colnmnar scbedale containlngr. In tbe 

 most practical form, aabstantlally the following 

 Information: 



1. A classiOcatlon of depreciable asaeta snb- 

 dirided on the basis of (a) character, (b) term 

 of useful life. 



2. The fair marlcet Talue of such assets March 

 1, 1913, if acquired before that date. 



8. The cost of such assets if acquired after 

 February 28, 1913. 



4. The estimated life or term of reasonable 

 usefulness of such assets from date acquired or 

 from March 1, 1913, as the case requires. Olre 

 reasons for your conclusions. 



6. For each class of assets state: (a) The 

 total amount of depreciation from March 1, 1913, 

 to the beginning of the taxable year, (b) The 

 total amountof depreciation claimed for the tax- 

 able year. 



The plain intent of the law and the 

 regulations is to allow greenhouse own- 

 ers, like other taxpayers, to deduct the 

 actual depreciation on their buildings, 

 but no more. 



The Internal Revenue Department has 

 indicated its idea of the expectation of 

 life of various classes of buildings, but 

 these are not a part of the law or regu- 

 lations and if they do not cover special 

 cases, due allowances are made. The 

 department thinks four per cent will 

 cover the depreciation on well-built 

 greenhouse structures, but there seems 

 to have been no action taken where flo- 

 rists have claimed higher depreciation. 

 The Review never has suggested that it 

 should be ten to twenty per cent. There 

 are plenty of greenhouses which are 20 

 to 25 3'ears old still producing profitable 

 crops. 



One point the florist should not over- 

 look is that when he has claimed depre- 

 ciation aggregating 100 per cent of the 

 cost of his buildings, no further allow- 

 ance for depreciation can be claimed. 



