•r^mr^^^v 



'■Ifff^lfW^ 



imf^flft' ,fl;.' "■*'Z- .:. "-'^'T.-^yrF- '»,'«;- 



80 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



June 1, 1905. 



cient to cloud the solution takes place 

 within two days, the chances of secur- 

 ing an efficient culture are much better 

 than where a longer time is taken; so 

 that the volume of solution prepared 

 should never exceed the actual require- 

 ments of the occasion. 



The following directions are based on 

 making ten gallons of liquid culture 

 sufficient to inoculate twenty bushels of 

 Bfed. By a little computation the di- 

 lections may be adapted to five gal- 

 lons or to any intermediate quantities. 



Preparing the Culture Solution. 

 To prepare the culture solution, first 

 select the tub, bucket, or other vessel 

 in which you wish to grow the bacteria. 

 Clean and scald it out thoroughly. For 

 making the culture solution, rain water 

 that has been thoroughly boiled and 

 allowed to cool is best, though any good 

 drinking water will answer. Add to 

 ten gallons of water twelve ounces of 

 either brown or granulated (preferably 

 granulated) sugar, one and one-half 

 ounces of potassium phosphate (mono- 

 basic), which can be obtained at any 

 diug store, and one-sixteenth ounce 

 (thirty grams) of magnesium sulphate. 

 Stir until dissolved, then carefully open 

 tlie small package containing the bac- 

 teria-laden cotton and drop the cotton 

 into the solution. Do not handle any 

 more than is absolutely necessary. Cover 

 the tub with a moist, clean cloth to 

 protect from dust, mold spores, etc. 

 Keep in a warm place, but never let 

 the temperature rise above blood heat. 

 After twenty-four hours add six ounces 

 cf ammonium phosphate and allow the 



To inoculate seed use tenough culture 

 liquid to moisten the seed thoroughly — 

 about one-half of a gallon per bushel. 

 This inoculating may be done either in 

 a tub or trough, or by sprinkling the 

 culture liquid on the seed on a dean 

 floor and stirring and turning the heaps 

 cf seed with shovels until all are thor- 

 oughly moistened. After inoculation 

 the seed should be spread out in a clean, 

 shady place until sufficiently dry to 

 handle. If planting is not to be done 

 at once, the seed must be thoroughly 

 dried to prevent molding. Inoculating 

 fields by soil transfer is attended by 

 many dangers and is not recommended. 

 The inoculated seed, if thoroughly dried, 

 niay usually be kept without deteriora- 

 tion for several months. 



Keeping Cultures. 



The question is frequently arising as 

 to the possibility of the farmer's keep- 

 ing over cultures from one year to an- 

 other by soaking up a little of the 

 liquid culture in cotton and drying this 

 cotton. This proposed practice is not 

 to be advised in any case. Contamina- 

 tions take place so readily, and once 

 started spread so rapidly, that for as- 

 sured good results it is absolutely nec- 

 essary to start with a pure culture. 

 The pure culture, moreover, can only 

 be prepared by a trained bacteriologist 

 with laboratory facilities. These cul- 

 tures in the dry state will keep, under 

 ordinary conditions, from six months to 

 a year. 



Pure-Culture Inoculation. 

 The extensive experiments carried on 



Spiraea Van Houttei in Kansas. 



mixture to stand for another twenty- 

 four hours. The liquid should now be 

 cloudy and ready for use; if sufficient 

 growth has not taken place to bring 

 about this cloudiness, further time 

 should be given, not to exceed a few 

 days. 



by the Department of Agriculture dur- 

 ing 1904 demonstrated the fact that, by 

 the proper use of pure cultures, the 

 nodule bacteria are actually carried into 

 the soil in such a way as to form root 

 nodules, and where other conditions are 

 favorable the inoculation thus brought 



about makes possible the growth of each 

 legume in soils where it had previously 

 failed from the lack of bacteria. The 

 original cjiltures used, however, must 

 be prepared with the utmost care and 

 with a view to preserving and increas- 

 ing their natural power as "nitrogen 

 fixers" rather than merely to make 

 them grow under favorable conditions. 

 The I>epartment is ready to cooperate 

 with experiment stations and commer- 

 cial firms, to give and to receive sug- 

 gestions, to test the product of others, 

 and to furnish, as far as possible, cul- 

 tures to be tested in the laboratory and 

 under field conditions. 



SPIRAEA VAN HOUTTEI. 



There are those among planters who 

 consider Spiraea Van Houttei the pre- 

 mier among flowering shrubs, and cer- 

 tainly there are few among the subjects 

 used by gardeners which could be point- 

 ed to as its superior. Perfectly hardy, 

 it possesses a most graceful habit and 

 a remarkable profusion of bloom, being 

 at the same time one of earliest to 

 flower. The accompanying picture 

 might be taken for an illustration of 

 that old text, "What's the Matter With 

 Kansas," horticulturally speaking, for 

 it is reproduced from a photograph 

 made at Chsrryvale, in that state, on 

 April 27 and shows that in this respect 

 Kansas is certainly all right. Usually 

 Spiraea Van Houttei' is catalogued as six 

 feet high, but this specimen is a great 

 deal more than that, and twelve feet in 

 diameter. It is growing on the lawn 

 of W. E. Dixon. 



WHAT IS A GOOD BOSTON. 



We recently bought 100 3-inch Bos- 

 ton ferns from a man who offered us 

 "extra thrifty" stock at what seemed 

 a cheap price for that kind of stock. 

 Now we are wondering what constitutes 

 an extra thrifty Boston. The box and 

 the 100 plants, packing and all, 

 weighed just thirty pounds. The av- 

 erage plant had four or five fronds. Is 

 that enough? The fronds were from 

 two to three feet long. Wie thought that 

 was too thrifty and sent them back. 

 Please describe what you think a 3-inch 

 Boston should be like. P. & P. 



This seems to be another illustration 

 of the fact that the lowest priced stock 

 may not prove to be the cheapest, and 

 it would appear from the description 

 that the plants in question would hardly 

 rank in the class of extra quality. A 

 good Boston fern in a 3-inch pot should 

 be short, stocky, and well furnished, hav- 

 ing six to nine fronds that would vary 

 in length from nine to fifteen inches. 

 If the plants are grown closely together 

 on the bench, and have been in this size 

 of pot for a length of time, some of 

 the fronds would exceed these dimen- 

 sions, but fronds three feet in length are 

 certainly excessive for a plant of that 

 size. W. H. Taplin. 



SWEET PEAS. 



I wish to ask how to grow sweet peas 

 and have them in bloom for Thanksgiv- 

 ing. When should they be sown and 

 how treated! W. H. M. 



We have never picked sweet peas as 

 early as Thanksgiving but know where 

 it has been done. The seed was sown 



