May, 1912.] 



417 



Edible Products. 



No one who is not well versed in the 

 care of pot-plants should attempt to 

 grow the stock-plants and bud them in 

 pots or boxes, or else the result is sure 

 to be discoui aging — if not a complete 

 failure. It takes an experienced man to 

 keep the plants not only in a growing 

 condition, but in a condition of perfect 

 health with the sap flowing freely, 

 and in condition for budding. To do this 

 the plant should receive a certain amount 

 of water from day to day, and this only a 

 trained man can rightly gauge. If over- 

 watered the soil sours, the roots deeay, 

 and the growth of the plant is suspended ; 

 if too little water is given, even for one 

 day, the cambium layer dries up and 

 bark sticks to the wood as it is glued ; in 

 either case budding is impossible. Also, 

 the plants should be examined every 

 three weeks, if not of tener, and all roots 

 that have started to grow through the 

 drainage vent cut off. If this is not 

 attended to, the greater part of the root 

 system of the plant will soon have formed 

 outside of the pot. The avocado is a 

 voracious feeder and soon exhausts the 

 available food supply in the pot, and the 

 fertility of the soil must be renewed by 

 artificial means. Where cow manure is 

 available, this may be mixed with water, 

 strained through a sieve or a coarse 

 cloth into a barrel and diluted until it 

 assumes the colour of weak coffee ; the 

 plants should then be watered with this 

 mixture once in two or three weeks, 

 according to their condition. Frequently 

 manure is not readily obtainable, how- 

 ever, and resort must be had to artificial 

 fertilizers. Only the most soluble chemi- 

 cals should then be used, those that 

 furnish a plant food immediately avail- 

 able. The writer has for several years 

 used the following formula for many 

 kinds of tropical plants (including the 

 avocado, mango, anonaceous plauts, 

 guavas, etc.. and different species of 

 palms), applied at intervals as directed 

 for the manure water, with highly 

 satisfactory results : — 



Nitrate of soda ... grams 275 

 Sulphate of potash, 



49 per cent ... ,, 125 

 Acid phosphate, 16 



per cent ... ,, 350 



Water .,. liters 100 



53 



Care should be taken to see that all 

 the constituents are well dissolved. The 

 acid phosphate has a tendency to settle 

 at the bottom, and the solution should, 

 therefore, be stirred up now and then. 



If the plants are to be budded in the 

 nursery the seed should be planted about 

 20 centimeters apart and covered with 

 15 to 25 millimeters of soil in lows laid 

 off 1 meter or more apart to suit the con- 

 venience of the propagator. If the soil 

 is dry, the land should be well irrigated 

 after the planting of the seed, and the 

 rows where the seed is planted covered 

 with a mulch of straw, leaves or seaweed. 

 In order to induce the plants to develop 

 a better lateral root system the rows 

 should be gone over when the plants are 

 about 15 centimeters high, and a sharp- 

 edged spade thrust diagonally into the 

 ground under each plant, cutting off the 

 taproot about 10 to 12 centimeters below 

 the surface of the ground. The weeds 

 should be kept down by frequent shallow 

 cultivation. Deep cultivation should be 

 avoided. 



For propagating woik in the nursery, 

 the simplicity of the method, the rapidity 

 with which the work may be performed, 

 coupled wi th great economy of material — 

 a valuable feature where this is scarce- 

 renders the method of shield-budding 

 preferable to all other methods of pro- 

 pagation. The avocado, fortunately, 

 responds well to this method. 



Much has been said about the difficulty 

 of budding the avocado, particularly in 

 regard to the failure of the buds to start, 

 though if proper conditions are observed 

 it is only slightly more difficult to bud 

 than the orange or the peach. The 

 principal difficulty according to the 

 writer's observations has been mainly 

 with the operator, who has lacked the 

 manual skill necessary for success and 

 the good judgment necessary for the 

 selection of buds ; not infrequently it 

 has been due to a poor budding knife. 

 Budding and grafting of a plant are 

 analogous to a surgical operation on a 

 human being, but the man who would be 

 horrified co see a surgeon pull out of his 

 pocket a rusty and dull jacknife to per* 



