16 



The Florists^ Review 



Apbil 16, 1914. 



IiABGE BED AT WINONA LAKE. 



At Winona Lake, Ind., the home of 

 the largest chautauqua assembly next 

 to the original assembly at Chautauqua, 

 N. Y., and the meeting place of the 

 largest Bible conference in the world, 

 is b tract of 200 acres on the shores of 

 Winona lake, which is made as at- 

 tractive as possible for those who at- 

 teiid the meetings . het^. To this end 

 bedding plants have been made exten- 

 ,8ive use of, and the largest piece of 

 this kind of work here may be seen in 

 the accompanying illustration. It was 

 the work of Fred A. King, superinten- 



dent of the Winona Greenhouses, which 

 are connected with the Winona Assem- 

 bly and Schools. This bed, which Mr. 

 King both designed and planted last 

 summer, took almost 20,000 bedding 

 plants, the number, it may be recalled, 

 which were required to spell out the 

 huge "welcome" in front of the con- 

 vention hall at the S. A. F. meeting at 

 Minneapolis last August. 



The florists of Indiana will have an 

 opportunity of seeing Mr. King's work 

 this coming summer, for the Indiana 

 State Florists' Association is planning 

 to have its two days' outing at Winona 

 Lake. 



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SOILS AND 



PLANT FOOD 



i 



BEST SOILS FOB FLOBISTS. 



Use of Lime and Manure. 



Manures are the substances used to 

 make up the natural deficiency which 

 has been caused in the soil. Manure 

 may be divided into two classes, nat- 

 ural and artificial. 



Lime is one of the most important 

 natural manures; it combines with or- 

 ganic and other acids, and so changes 

 an acid soil to an alkaline soil, or, as 

 is commonly said, sweetens it. It acts 

 as a direct plant food, and improves 

 the mechanical condition of soils. It 

 acts upon the inorganic substances of 

 a soil, particularly potash and soda, 

 making' these substances available to 

 the plant for food. It also promotes 

 the formation of double silicates in the 

 soil. Mixed in a compost head, it fa- 

 vors the production of nitrate of potash. 



Lime is exhausting to soils, as it 

 renders available or liberates organic 

 matters such as ammonia from fertil- 

 izers and manure, and so should be ap- 

 plied to land either before or after the 

 application of manure or fertilizers. 

 Lime is never plowed in, but sown on 

 the surface, and either harrowed or 

 raked in. Lime should not be left on 

 the surface. 



As a plant food, farm and stable 

 manure occupies an important if not 

 first place. Yet it is by no means the 

 cheapest, if one has to buy it. Nor is 

 it essential. In fact, the beat potatoes 



This paper, which is continued from The Re- 

 view of April 2, was prepared by W. G. Gomer- 

 sall, of Nyack, N. Y., and met with such 

 approval that it has been read before a number 

 of horticultural societies In the east. 



and mSffiy crops are grown on artificial 

 fertilizers alone. Four thousand pounds 

 or two tons of stable manure contain, 

 on an average, fifty pounds of plant 

 food. Yet the remaining 3,950 pounds 

 is not all valueless, for it supplies hu- 

 mus to the soil, which the artificial fer- 

 tilizers do not. This straw and other 

 organic matter tends to lighten heavy 

 clay soils, and may serve as a holder 

 of moisture for sandy soils. But on 

 hilly land, or in the case of long dis- 

 tances, it does not pay to have so 

 much humus, when, by growing green 

 crops and plowing them under, the 

 same or better results are obtained. It 

 must be taken into account, too, that 

 one horse will draw enough artificial 

 fertilizers for one acre, while for the 

 requisite amount of stable manure 

 fifteen to twenty teams are needed. 



Hungry Soils and Grateful Soils. 



Some soils are known as hungry 

 soils, others as grateful soils. The hun- 

 gry soils are of a sandy character and 

 are constantly in need of manure. 

 Manure put on such soils in the 

 autumn, or long before a crop needs it, 

 is washed out before the crop can use 

 it. But if a clover crop is on such 

 land, and after the hay is cut a good 

 dressing of fertilizer or manure be put 

 on as a top-dressing, the clover will 

 take it up and hold it until plowed un- 

 der in the spring. Hungry soils should 

 never be allowed to lie fallow over 

 winter, 



A grateful soil is a good loam, or 

 clay loam, with abundance of double 

 silicates, bacteria and organic matter. 

 They yield good returns in the form of 



crops. Clay soils are fertilizer holders, 

 and are best plowed and fallowed dur- 

 ing the winter. 



Ot the artificial fertilizers, phos- 

 phate and tankage and fish fertilizers 

 may be put on the land in early spring, 

 for they are only slowly soluble, while 

 nitrate of soda and sulphate of am- 

 monia, on account of their quick solu- 

 bility, should be applied some weeks 

 later. It must be borne in mind, too, 

 that these latter fertilizers will not 

 carry a crop through all its stages of 

 growth, but, being readily available, 

 are auxiliary aids to help a crop at 

 critical stages of its growth. Nitrogen 

 will not force a growth, however, un- 

 less the soil and conditions are right, 

 and potash and phosphate be present. 



,. Supplying the Nitrogen. 



Coal will not burn without air, and 

 a soil baked on its surface from lack 

 of cultivation will not grow a crop, 

 however much nitrogen is given. 



There is an inexhaustible supply of 

 nitrogen in the air, but nature has so 

 arranged that it is not available to 

 the plants for food. They cannot ex- 

 tract it, and because of the scarcity of 

 nitrogen it is the most valuable plant 

 food. Four-fifths of the atmosphere is 

 nitrogen. Yet, so far as is known, no 

 plant is able to extract an atom of it. 

 Nor has science been able to discover 

 any economical method of extracting 

 it. 



The clover plant and its allies, such 

 as lupines, peas and vetches, are able 

 by means of the nodules formed on 

 the roots to extract nitrogen, by the 

 aid of bacteria, from the air, but the 

 soil must be in a condition to support 

 the bacteria for it to do so. Putting 

 an ounce of bacteria into the soil is 

 not likely to produce a crop of clover 

 or alfalfa. Lime seems to be an essen- 

 tial constituent for producing bacterial 

 activity in the soil. Alfalfa will some- 

 times be a successful crop after a good 

 application of land plaster, though 

 previous to the land plaster application 

 the alfalfa growing was a failure. 



By some it has been said that corn 

 will extract nitrogen from the air. 

 There is, however, no proof that it 

 does. 



Stiffening the Stems. 



Nitrogen imparts a green color to 

 the leaf, and makes it larger and more 

 luxuriant in appearance. An excess of 

 it gives a soft growth, such as is often 

 seen in weak carnation stems and grain 

 crops. Salt has a checking action upon 

 the soft growth, and when applied to 

 grain land and plowed it stiffens the 

 straw. The same effects of salt may 

 be seen on carnations grown near the 

 ocean, for the stems have a stiff, wire- 

 like appearance. Muriate of potash in 

 solution, applied with the liquid man- 

 ure to carnation benches, will assist in 



Bed Containhig 20,000 Plants at Winona Lake, Ind., Designed and Planted by Fred A. King. 



