20 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



MAltcil 2\, 101: 



STATE AID FOR 

 FLORICULTURE 



WORK AT EXPERIMENT STATION. 



lA ri'piiit by Trcf. II. ]!. Konn'i-. ni' ilic i\| iii 

 mciil slatioii ;U rili.-ui;i. 111.. iimiI mi ilir r.iiiMM 

 tloii uf the Illinois Sl:ilc I'l.Tisi-' .\sso.i;il i>>ii :ii 

 Jolii't, AUircli .">, V.n-J. I 



As a roiue!sciit:iti\i' of the I'liivorsity 

 of Illinois, 1 bi'ji to int'soiit tlu' follow 

 iuj; I'l'poit on the work hoin;^ cavricd 

 on .'it tlu' Uoiists' ('X]H'riMU'iital irrooii 

 housey at I'rbaiia. This work is a con 

 tiniiation of that of the last two years 

 and is undor the dircrtitui of yoiii' ad 

 I'isory coniinittoo. 



Department Statt. 



During the last yoar it was Ihoughl 

 advisable to add a Ilath(^lo^■ist to tlu- 

 staff of the d(']>artin('iit . As a result. 

 H. \V. Andorson was ai>|ioiiite(l ;i ii as 

 sistant in the department and is de 

 voting his time to 1 lie study (if lln' 

 diseases of llorieultural <ro]is. At the 

 present time h(> is studying the stem 

 rot and other diseases of t h(> carn.'ition. 

 More will l>e said about this sub.jeit 

 later. 



The incM'ase of \\()rk in the depart 

 nieiit, in the instructional as well as 

 the experimental side, has made it nee 

 essary to secure additional assistance 

 in tiie greenlunises. The services of 

 James Uutchinson. formerly of Pitts- 

 burgh, Pa., liave been secured and he 

 is taking charg(> of th<> greenhouse and 

 outdoor work. 



As the instructional work h:is greatly 

 increa^eil. it is necessary to deNoti' mor.' 

 time to it ;ind so an attempt i-< i>eiug 

 made to secure .m scientiliciiUy trained 

 man 1o Jis^ist in the experinnMil;il \\<ol-. 



Instructional Work. 



l»uring the last year sixty ei-ht stii 

 dents rei-ei\ed iiislvnction in se\cr,-il of 

 tlie liii.s III woik olfeied in tloi irult ure. 

 During the ]iresent year ninety one stti 

 dents have mridled for variiuis lim^s of 

 work. It is hiiped that this miinber 

 will increase friuii year to year. The 

 work olfeied will be much ini|iro\ed 

 when the new h.ouses. fur whiih mniiey 

 was ajipropriated tliis ii.ast yi>ar. are 

 erected. 



New Greenhouses. 



The new hdU^es to be ereited will 



consist ol "Imw hciuse< and will be con 

 nccted with the I'xperiniental laiiue. It 

 is hoped that thes(^ housc's will not 

 only aid in the inst I'lict ion of studiMits 

 iutiMiding to fellow ciiniimM'ci.al work, 

 but will admit of the olTering of courses 

 of interest to studiMits wishing to tak(> 

 up work on private estates. 



The work on the cotistruction of the 

 new liouses has been delayeil. owing to 

 the qtiestion of the futiua^ develop 

 .nent of the university camims. The 

 rearrangement of the campus and the 

 location of new buildings may make 

 .t necessary to move the present experi 

 mental houses. It is expected that this 

 will be decided soon and so will in no 

 way affect the experimental work. If 

 the' houses are moved it will bo to the 

 opposite siile of the campus, on a site 



iniK h better fitted for the work than 

 lli:it at present occupied. 



Expeilmental Work. 



The experimental work on fertilizers 

 has been caried on by Mr. Nehrling and 

 the writer. Mr. Nehrling for the last 

 two years has bi-en in charge of the 

 greater jiortion of the experimental 

 wink. The rei)ort on the following 

 work, then, is to be considered as a 

 ioiiit report with Mr. Nehrling. 



Carnation Experiment. 



The experiment with commercial fer- 

 tilizers in the growing of carnations 

 may be di\ ided into three sections. The 

 work in one house is a repetition of 

 the work carried on for the last two 

 ye.ais. This is a test of \arying quan 

 titi<'s of ni.anure. The second house, 

 I his \-e;ir. is beine de\oted to a com- 



The Editor is pleased 

 when a Reader 

 presents bis ideas 

 on any subject treated in 



As experience is the best 

 teacher, so do we 

 learn fastest by an 

 exchange of experiences. 

 Many valuable points 

 are brought out 

 by discussion. 



Good penminiship. siielliiifT and 

 Kranunar. tlKniuli disiratile. are not 

 iit'ccssary. Write as you would talk 

 \\ lien doiiiK your lie>t. 



WE SHALL BE GLAD 

 TO HEAR FROM YOU 



paiisoii of eariiatioiis grown with nat- 

 ural manures and carnations grown with 

 comnuMcial fertilizers. Part of the 

 liousi; is also ih'voted to an ex]>crimcnt 

 to determine the effects of an excess 

 (if 1ertili/er upon the jdants. 



Varying Quantities of Fertilizer. 



The work in this ji.art of the experi- 

 ment is a duplication of the work of 

 IHOP-M and liUn-ll. This duplication 

 is necessary, for in all experimental 

 work of this tyjio it is necessary to 

 rejieat the work for three or four 

 \cars bid'ore any definite conclusions 

 can be drawn. The report upon this 

 part of the work will be brief, as a 

 circular is now in j)reparation and it 



is hoped that it will be ready for distri- 

 bution this spring. 



During the season of I009-10 records 

 were taken on -17,7-9 carnations, and 

 during 1910-11 on 12,425. This data 

 must be studied and many tables con- 

 structed for comparison. 



The Object. 



The object of the exj)eriment is to 

 dcdermine whether as good or better 

 carnations can be grown with the use 

 of commercial fertilizers instead of 

 natural manures. It must be kept in 

 mind that humus is necessary in all 

 soils for the best results, and so all 

 manure cannot be dispensed with un- 

 less the humus is apjilied in some other 

 form. This humus is necessary for the 

 develo[)ment of the bacteria which help 

 to make available the nutritive sub- 

 st.ances in tln^ soil. l''or the exjieriment 

 :i small tpiantity of manure was used 

 to sup])ly this necessary humus. 



l!y juevious experiments it was de- 

 cidi (1 that the best commercial fertili- 

 zers to supi)ly the needed elements were 

 driiMl blood and ammonium sulphate 

 for nitrogen, acid phosphate for phos- 

 |)liorus and jiotassium sulphate for po- 

 tassium. In th« experiment these were 

 ai)plied to all but the control sections, 

 in order to determine if possible in 

 what proportion they are best suited 

 to the carnation. 



For the experiment the following 

 aiiKninis of fertilizer wore selected as 

 nuits of application: 



Di-icl hlced, 2 Ilis. |ici- leo sq. fl. liciicli. .soil 

 •". ill. deep. 



.\in. sliliiliMlc. II.. llw. per 1(K> S(|. fl. 

 \cid pliiisplKite. ij lb. pel- 10<l .s,|. ft. 

 |■el;l^^illlll sidpliMte. '-j III. per 100 .si], fl. 

 .Mmiiiuo, ll.'i Uis. (If idioiit :■>>,/. liii. per llli scj. ft. 



The standard application, then, in- 

 (dude(l these fertilizers at the rates 

 mentioned. Dried blood was used for 

 the nitrogen except in a few sections, 

 where ammonium sulphate was used in 

 its ]dace. The control sections had 

 the same amount of manure, but no 

 commercial fertilizers. 



The commercial fertilizers in the 

 other sections were doubled and quad- 

 rujded singly, in jiairs and all together. 

 This. tluMi. gave coml)inations of vary- 

 ing airiounts for the study of the quan- 

 tity of each necessary. 



The Cut. 



The varieties originally selected for 

 this work were White Perfection, Bea- 

 con, I'^nchantress and Winsor. Winsor 

 was discarded at the end of the second 

 year, on account of the excessive 

 amount of stem-rot. It was replaced 

 by White iMichantress, which does not 

 appear in the tables, as it was used 

 for the comi>arison of the commercial 

 fertilizers and natural manures. 



The following table shows the entire 

 cut by varieties for the two years and 

 also the average number of flowers per 

 plant. These numbers are not as great 

 as they would be if all the plants were 

 under the best possible cultural con- 

 ditions. 



