Decbmbkb 20, 1907. 



The Weekly Rorists* Review. 





Nerine FothergiUi Major. 



their growth, the leaves appearing just 

 after the flowers. 



The plants can be used effectively for 

 open fire-place decoration, mixed with 

 maidenhair ferns, and are • Iso good for 

 stands or window-boxes, arranged with 

 light foliage plants of any kind. In a 

 cut state they make a bright and at- 

 tractive dining-table centerpiece. No 

 other bulbous plant, excepting perhaps 

 Vallota purpurea, compares with them 

 in brilliancy. 



N. FothergiUi major, with crimson 



scarlet flowers, is in my estimation the 

 best of the forms. It is in season late 

 in October or the early part of Novem- 

 ber. N: Sarniensis, brilliant scarlet, has 

 smaller- umbels and blooms a few days 

 later. N. Corusca, which is in reality a 

 form of N. Sarniensis, has larger flowers, 

 broader foliage and greater vigor. The 

 foregoing are the best varieties to grow, 

 but the weaker growing, but free bloom- 

 ing pink, rose and other light-colored 

 sorts are well worth a place in any col- 

 lection of plants. W. N. Craig. 



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SOME FACTS 



ABOUT SOILS 



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Definition of SoiL 



Soils are an aggregation of rock and 

 mineral fragments, carrying an admix- 

 ture of organic debris, together with 

 substances in soluble and colloidal con- 

 dition. The productivity of soils is de- 

 termined by their composition, by their 

 structure, by their climate and by the 

 life activities within them. By composi- 

 tion we refer to their mineral and chem- 

 ical nature; by their structure we refer 

 to the size of the soil grains and to the 

 segregation of them; by their climate we 

 refer to their water content, their tem- 

 perature, their aSration, their drainage; 

 by life activities we refer to the inter- 



A paper by Prof. P. H. King, of MadUon, 

 Wis., read before the Congress of Horticulture 

 at the .Tamestown exposition, September 23. 



action of the roots of plants and micro- 

 organisms upon one another, upon the 

 soil grains, upon the organic matter, up- 

 on substances in solution and upon col- 

 loids. 



Compositioa. 



The composition of soils, and their 

 structure so far as it influences weight, 

 determine the absolute amount of plant 

 food elements per unit volume, per cubic 

 foot, per acre-foot or per acre-four-feet, 

 which is the depth to which most crops 

 are a,ble to feed, the depth to which they 

 send their roots if all the factors of 

 productivity are at their best. Compo- 

 sition, therefore, determines the endur- 

 ance of a field; the outermost limit of 

 its productive capacity. This statement 

 is not in accord with the teaching of 



our national Department of Agriculture, 

 where it aflSrms: "Practically all soils 

 contain sufficient plant food for good 

 crop yields; the supply will be indefinite- 

 ly maintained and this actual yield of 

 plants adapted to the soil depends main- 

 ly, under favorable climatic conditions, 

 upon cultural methods and suitable crop 

 rotation. ' * 



It is safe to say that no statement in 

 recent years, designed to direct agricul- 

 tural practice and issued by high author- 

 ity, is farther from the truth than this. 

 Few statements could be more mislead- 

 ing and land agents are using it, both 

 in good faith and unscrupulously, to sell 

 at high price low grade lands. Much 

 nearer the truth is the statement: No 

 soils contain sufficient plant food for 

 maximum yields when all other factors 

 are at their best; and the best cultural 

 methods, with rotation of crops, only 

 hasten the exhaustion of soils. 



Fallacy In Teaching. 



The Department's teaching has result- 

 ed from confusing plant food elements 

 with plant food. Rigid chemical analysis 

 has demonstrated that primary rock, 

 crushed to the fineness of soil, may carry 

 per acre-four-feet, seventy-eight tons of 

 potassium, 250 tons of calcium, 133 tons 

 of magnesium and even eight tons of 

 phosphorus. So, too, an acre-four-feet 

 of good soil may carry as much as 100 

 tons of potassium, forty-five tons of cal- 

 cium, thirty-five tons of magnesium and 

 even twelve tons of phosphorus, and 

 there is this much foundation in fact for 

 the statement we have criticised. But 

 these enormous amounts of plant food 

 elements present in the root zone of 

 field crops are no more to be regarded 

 as plant food for those crops than they 

 are food for the animals feeding upon 

 pasture grass. 



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