456 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 508. 



spurs is near enough to give all the force of contrast to its 

 unrivaled blue. Cornflowers and a hundred other pretty an- 

 nuals are scattered wherever there is room, with many a 

 cushion of fragrant Mignonette or Sweet Alyssum inter- 

 spersed ; and the bunches of cut flowers that these borders 

 supply are always as fragrant as they are profuse. 



One secret of the perfection of this rare old garden is the 

 fearless use of the wheelbarrow. With all the gentleness that 

 seems to belong inevitably to the lover of flowers, its owner is 

 gifted with the strong trait of decision. Annuals, perennials, 

 cuttings multiply everywhere, and there are always, one 

 would say, too many plants, though all seem to thrive, but 

 nothing is allowed to keep a position where it carries itself 

 insolently as an intruder. If a weed is a plant out of place, 

 how many weeds there are assiduously cultivated in some 

 very showy gardens. Homely as are her ways, perhaps, 

 " mother " has really a genius for her own task. She certainly 

 knows how to make a garden that is a complete and beautiful 

 whole, and not a mere collection of more or less interesting 

 plants. 



Amherst, Mass. 



D. H. R. Goodale, 



Experiences in Fertilizing Potted Plants with 

 Wagner's Solution. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In 1894 I made notes regarding the use of this 

 form of plant-food upon rooted cuttings of several species 

 of common house-plants. The solution has been tested 

 quite extensively by Professor Paul Wagner, Director of the 

 Agricultural Experiment Station at Darmstadt, and the re- 

 sults of his trials are embodied in an illustrated pamphlet of 

 sixty-seven pages, entitled, Die Atvwendung Kicnstlicher Diinge- 

 mittel im Obst= ttnd Gemusebaii, in der Blumen= nnd Garten- 

 kitltur, the third edition of which was published by Paul 

 Parey, Berlin, 1893. The solution contains phosphate of am- 

 monia, thirty grams ; nitrate of soda, twenty-five grams ; 

 nitrate of potash, twenty-five grams; sulphate of ammonia, 

 twenty grams. Add water to make 100 liters, or about twenty- 

 six and a half gallons. 



We used in our experiments Pelargonium (Geranium), var. 

 Luster, six plants; Begonia compta, six plants; Heliotrope, 

 twelve plants. Several other plants, including Carnations and 

 Cinerarias, were treated with the solution. 



At first the plant-food in solution was given to the rooted 

 cuttings which had just been potted ; but the plants began to 

 drop their leaves and show signs of unthriftiness, and the solu- 

 tion was withheld for three weeks. They had then recovered, 

 and were making a good growth. Lot No. 1 comprised two 

 plants each of Begonia and Pelargonium and four of Heliotrope ; 

 these were potted in rich soil made by composting good turf 

 with about one-third its bulk of stable manure. These plants 

 received no additional plant-food. Lot No. 2 consisted of the 

 same number of plants as lot No. I. These were potted in the 

 same kind of soil and watered with the solution, and lot No. 3 

 contained the same number of the same varieties of plants as 

 lots Nos. 1 and 2. These plants were potted in a soil of anthra- 

 cite coal ashes, to which five per cent (by weight) of moss-peat 

 had been admixed. These plants were watered with the 

 solution. 



Beginning September iSth, the solution was administered 

 whenever the plants needed watering, with the exception of 

 the plants in lot No. 1, which received water instead of the so- 

 lution. The plants in lot No. 2 soon began to grow, and were 

 the largest of all. One plant in lot No. 3 decayed at the stem 

 and roots, and was removed. The plants were repotted 

 December 1st. Those in lot No. 1 had good roots, while 

 those in lot No. 2, which had much larger tops, had a root- 

 system much smaller, and those of lot No. 3 had almost no 

 roots. This was true of the several species as well as of the 

 individual plants grown under this treatment. The Carnations 

 seemed to be injured instead of benefited by so much plant- 

 food, the largest plants being those grown in the soil alone. 

 Heliotrope plants grew as well in the coal ashes as in the soil 

 when both received the solution. The smallest plants were 

 those of lot No. 1, which received no liquid fertilizer. Pelar- 

 goniums and Begonias grew best in the compost with the solu- 

 tion, but the plants in lot No. 3, for the most part, were smaller 

 than those of No. 1. 



About the first of January, 1895, some of the highly-fed 

 Pelargoniums began to wilt, and the wilting continued even 

 when the soil was saturated with moisture ; the point had been 

 reached, evidently, where the small root system was unable to 

 supply moisture as fast as it was given off by the leaves. As 

 soon as it was apparent that the plants could not recover under 



the same treatment they were removed from the pots and the 

 soil was carefully washed from the roots. The plants were 

 then severely cut back, potted in ordinary soil, and they re- 

 covered. 



The results of these tests point to the conclusion that while 

 the amount of moisture in the soil influences the development 

 of the root system as explained by Sachs,* the amount of 

 easily available nutritive matter in the soil also exerts a con- 

 siderable influence upon the size of the root system. The 

 overfeeding of plants is said to cause a decay of the root-hairs 

 which are quickly replaced by new ones ; probably this is what 

 happened in the case cited above. The symptoms, however, 

 were not those stated by Sorauer, who says : t "The case 

 becomes more serious if the concentration of the water con- 

 tained in the pot becomes too strong, owing to a too rapidly 

 repeated application of manures. The growth of the upper 

 portions of the plant is then visibly retarded, the internodes 

 are shortened, and the leaves become puckered, owing to a 

 shortening of the midrib _md lateral veins, or are bent in 

 various directions, spotted, and fall off at an early period. The 

 roots themselves are short, thick and bent up, and the newly 

 formed root-hairs are irregular and shortened, soon become 

 brown and discolored and die away." 



In this experiment the plants had every appearance of thrift 

 until they were found in a wilted condition. A superabun- 

 dance of easily soluble and, therefore, easily available plant- 

 food enables the plant to take up the required amount without 

 sending out long roots to search for it. Large conducting 

 roots are unnecessary, the root-hairs near the stem being able 

 to take up all the plant-food that can be assimilated by the 

 plant. 



Since making the cultures described above we have con- 

 stantly used the same solution, but applied it less frequently, 

 with excellent results. One application a week for the slower- 

 growing and woody plants, and two applications for the more 

 rapid-growing herbaceous plants, seem to be all that is needed. 

 This method of feeding potted plants is much neater than the 

 use of liquid manure ; it often renders repotting unnecessary, 

 and is cheaper than the proprietary forms of prepared liquid 

 plant-food usually found upon the market. 



Agl. Exp. Station, New Haven, Conn. 



IV. E. Br it ton. 



The Forest. 



Are the Trees Receding from the Nebraska Plains?:]: 



IT is a question of no little interest, both botanically and 

 economically, whether the forest trees upon the Ne- 

 braska plains are receding from a former wider distribution^ 

 I do not here refer to such changes in distribution as are 

 made by man, who in some places is removing the forest 

 trees, and in others planting and growing them. These 

 changes, which are directly due to man's interference, are 

 of greater interest in other portions of the country, but upon 

 the plains another question appears, involving the slow 

 changes due to natural causes, and having nothing what- 

 ever to do with men's activities. 



There are, all told, sixty-five species of trees which grow 

 naturally within the limit of the state, yet for a great part 

 of its area but a small per cent of these are to be found in 

 any particular locality. The greatest number occurs in 

 the south-eastern corner of the state, and from this point 

 the species decrease as we pass north-westerly. To par- 

 ticularize, as we enter the state at its south-eastern corner 

 we find that there are ten species of Oaks, but after travel- 

 ing one hundred kilometres (sixty to sixty-five miles) west- 

 ward or north-westward we find that there are but two 

 species, and within a few kilometres (five to ten miles) one 

 of these disappears, unless we follow the bluffs of the 

 Missouri northward. The trees of the Walnut family 

 present a similar interesting distribution. The Black Walnut 

 has extended its range along the south line of the state, in 

 the Republican valley, for 350 kilometres (200 to 220 miles), 

 and northward along the Missouri and Niobrara rivers for 

 fully 700 kilometres (435 miles). The Butternut, on the 

 contrary, does not extend more than 100 to 125 kilometres 



* Physiology of Plants, p. 256. 

 t A Treatise on the Physiology of Plants, p. 73. 



X A paper read before the botanical section ot the American Association tor the 

 Advancement of Science, in Detroit, August 10th, 1897. 

 § Garden and Fokest, vol. v., p. 46. Vol. vii., p. 509. 



