■••"/■■••».• 'C .f/ 



JuxB 13, 1907. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



IS 



CARNATION NOTES.-EAST. 



Cultivation. 



The cool weather and frequent rains 

 during May and so far this month have 

 given plants in the field a grand chance 

 to become well established. If thorough 

 cultivation has been kept up, particular- 

 ly soon after each rain, there would 

 seem to be no good reason why stock 

 should not be growing vigorously and 

 the ground practically free from weeds. 

 The day is past when cultivation was 

 delayed until it could be delayed no 

 longer, lest the weeds foreclose and take 

 full possession. Up-to-date methods now 

 demand stirring the trodden soil be- 

 tween the rows in the afternoon of the 

 day planted, and from then until the 

 plants are lifted there should be no 

 crust allowed to form on the surface. 



We have for some time grown our 

 plants on the intensive plan, that is, 

 close planting on comparatively small 

 areas of land. Among our reasons for 

 this are limited room and difficulty in 

 securing manure in satisfactory quantity 

 and quality. However, with unlimited 

 land 1 can see no advantage, as far as 

 the production of first quality plants is 

 concerned, in spacing them three feet 

 or more between rows and two feet 

 apart in the row, as is sometimes done. 

 Three feet between rows is none too 

 much if cultivation be done with horses, 

 but we use the Planet, Jr., or Iron Age, 

 two-wheeled "hand cultivators, which, by 

 many who never used one, are consid- 

 ered toys or playthings, but that mat- 

 ters none, for these contrivances do the 

 work well and reduce the labor of hand 

 hoeing to a mere matter of form, be- 

 sides compelling the operator to rivet his 

 attention on the work in hand and keep 

 his feet where they belong. 



Geo. S. Osborn. 



CARNATION NOTES.-WEST. 



Cultivating and Toppiog. 



Xow that all your young carnation 

 plants are in the field and it is yet too 

 early to begin preparations for replant- 

 j"g> you will be able to give them 

 proper attention for a few weeks, and 

 in that time they should get under head- 

 way for a good season's growth. As I 

 have often said before, you should keep 

 the cultivator going just as much as pos- 

 sible to keep the soil loose on the sur- 

 face. It not only helps to keep down 

 the weeds, but it prevents baking of the 

 poil during a dry spell. Try to go 

 through them at least once each week in 

 the absence of rain, and in case of rain 

 get into them after every rain just as 

 soon as the soil dries enough to crumble 

 nicely. Be just as careful, however, to 

 keep off the field while the soil is wet 

 and packy as you are with the soil in- 

 side. You will find it necessary to go 

 through them with the hoe to get out 

 the weeds from close around the plants 



and to loosen the soil in the row be- 

 tween the plants. This latter is as im- 

 portant as the cultivating and should 

 not be neglected. By keeping the field 

 well cultivated you will avoid the neces- 

 sity of artificial watering, which is not 

 desirable except in rare cases. I will 

 have more to say on this subject at 

 some future time. 



From now on you must look closely 

 after the topping of the plants. With 

 good weather the plants should make 

 rapid progress, and it will pay you to 

 keep them topped as closely as is pra«- 

 ticable in order to lose as little growth 

 as possible. Especially is this true if 

 you intend to begin housing in July. 

 We notice that plants that were topped 

 a few weeks before they Avere planted 

 in the field are now needing to be topped 

 back the second time. By the time each 

 shoot is topped and breaks again they 

 will be nice, bushy plants and ready to 

 plant in if desirable. You do not want 

 a large plant to set in the bench during 

 July. 



There is an art in this topping which 

 it will pay every carnation grower to 

 study, as it will have a direct bearing 

 on the steadiness of next season's cut of 

 blooms, providing the plants are not 

 benched too late in the fall. Go over 

 the plants frequently and top back, not 

 too many shoots on one plant at one 

 time, but top the longer ones and leave 

 the balance a few days. This will not 



only keep the shoots coming in a steady 

 succession later on, but it will keep the 

 plant growing more steadily without 

 checking it so severely as cutting off 

 every young shoot will do. 



In topping you should also keep in 

 mind the production of shapely plants. 

 By judicious topping you can often get 

 nice, shapely plants from varieties that 

 are inclined to grow straggly. Such va- 

 rieties should be kept as close to the 

 ground ^s possible and topped every 

 time a shoot makes two or three pairs 

 of blades. In that way the plants will 

 grow bushy until you b*nch them, and 

 after that you can support them. Some 

 growers try to get considerable stem, be- 

 tween the ground and the lowest break, 

 and while their reasons are good and it 

 will work very well with some varieties, 

 yet with other varieties, such as the 

 ' ' let me lay down ' ' kinds, it does not 

 work at all. Varieties that produce a 

 rather open growth had better be topped 

 rather low. Even if some of the eyes 

 below the soil break, it will do no harm, 

 but rather the contrary. The stem 

 springing from such eyes will be the 

 same as the main stem of the plant 

 and will not rot like a green stem that 

 is covered up after it is grown. 



You cannot set any specific period of 

 time to allow between each time you go 

 over the plants. The rapidity of the 

 growth will have to govern that. Of 

 course, you ought to see the plants every 

 day to keep posted on their condition 

 and progress. That does not mean that 

 you should top some of them every day, 

 but you will be able to do it when it is 

 needed, and as I have said before, you 

 will not need to lose too much growth 

 by having to cut away more than is 

 necessary on account of having let them 

 grow too long. A. F. J. Baue. 



FERTILIZERS. 



Will you kindly advise whether distil- 

 lery manure is good for mixing with 

 soil in the growing of roses and carna- 

 tions? 



Manure from horses and cattle fed 

 on distillery and brewery products is 

 absolutely worthless on the rose and car- 

 nation bench. Indeed, it is worse than 

 worthless ; it is a rank poison under such 

 conditions. 



The analysis of farm-yard manure 

 from well fed cattle shows that it con- 

 tains all the constituents, without excep- 

 tion, which are required by roses and 

 carnations to bring them to perfection. 



and hence it may be called a perfect 

 manure. Manures for roses and carna- 

 tions should be rich in potassium, phos- 

 phorus and nitrogen, as these elements 

 are indispensable to vegetable life. These 

 elements are contained in barn-yard 

 manure in nearly the proper proportions, 

 with little of the caustic properties so 

 prevalent in many of the chemical com- 

 pounds, and in the gradual decomposi- 

 tion of the manure these elements are 

 given off in quantities and in such form 

 as to be easily assimilated by the plants. 



Stable manure and all decomposing 

 animal and vegetable substances have 

 also a tendency to promote the decay 

 of stubborn organic remains in the soil, 

 on the principle that putrescent sub- 

 stances hasten the putrefaction in other 

 organic bodies with which they come in 

 contact. 



From experiments made at different 

 stations and also from the experience 

 of many good growers, manure from 

 brewery fed cattle has proved a failure, 



i^: 



