6 



CLAY Ih HORTICULTURE. 



■winter dashed on their leaves, and I have seen men 

 planting the olive four thousand feet above the sea-level, 

 in the heart of the Sierras. There are extensive olive 

 orchards in Shasta, where the Sacramento leaves the 

 mountains to enter the broad valley ; other orchards are 

 near the Mexican boundary in the extreme southwestern 



corner of the state. The hot interior valleys will grow 

 the strong, rich, Spanish varieties; the Coast Range 

 and the Sierra foothills will prove best for the French 

 and Italian sorts. All are at home somewhere in the 

 golden land of the Argonauts of '49. 



Charles Howard Shinn. 



CLAY IN HORTICULTURE. 



ITS VALUE IN SUNDRY OPERATIONS 



HE conditions essential to 

 the germination of fi n e 

 seeds are not so easily met 

 as those essential to the 

 germination of larger seeds, 

 which push up smilingly 

 through obstacles fatal to 

 finer ones. All seeds ought 

 to be sown according to 

 their requirements — fine seeds must be. 



If covered too deep— sometimes if covered at all — 

 they will not push up. Watered too freely they are 

 liable to be carried down into the soil, or to perish by rot. 

 The opposite extreme is followed by equally bad results. 



My remarks apply especially to the very minute, 

 such as spores of ferns, seeds of begonia, lobelia, etc. 

 Such are usually sown directly upon the smooth surface 

 of a finely sifted mold, which has been saturated with 

 water before the seeds were sprinkled. The chief diffi- 

 culty afterwards is to keep the soil uniformly moist, 

 since overhead watering must be avoided. To meet 

 this difficulty, instead of velvety mold I use the yellow- 

 est and stiffest of clay, which when thoroughly wet 

 retains moisture for a long time. My method is to 

 get the clay dry, pulverize it, then mix it with water, 

 and work it into a stiff mud. It is then placed in a shal- 

 low box or seed-pan about three or four inches deep, 

 and spread and pressed over the bottom in a layer about 

 two and a half inches deep. The surface is smoothed 

 off, and shallow indentations are made with the finger 

 or the handle of a trowel. A very thin layer of fine 

 mold is then sifted over it ; the whole is sprinkled with 

 water, and the seeds are sown on the still wet surface. 

 The box is then set away under a bench in the green- 



house, where, in winter, it will need no covering ; or if 

 on the bench, it should be covered with a glass and 

 shaded on bright days. The seeds have here a uniform 

 moisture, and will require no watering until pricked out, 

 or able to bear sprinkling. 



Secondly, in the spring planting of young trees from 

 the nursery — especially in light soils — a few lumps of 

 clay mixed with the lighter soil and among the roots 

 are an excellent safeguard against the effects of drought. 

 In a short time the roots penetrate them, and as they 

 remain moist when the more porous soil is quite dry, 

 the tree does not suffer as it otherwise would during an 

 untimely "dry spell." 



Again, I have often used clay to advantage among 

 roses on the bench in the greenhouse by mixing lumps 

 of it with the soil; and I have used it also as a thin 

 mulch. On examination I have always found the roots 

 penetrating the lumps in quite a thick network. 



Winter-blooming roses are most successfully grown in 

 a rather dry soil. Should it become too dry, it is easy 

 to see how the clay would be of benefit. While clay 

 will never prove injurious unless used too freely, it is 

 especially to be recommended where the soil for roses 

 is very light. All florists speak of mixing sand with their 

 artificial soils, but some have fully as much need of clay 

 as of a sand-pile. 



I have grown good geranium plants in sand and clay — 

 the latter coming from a depth of fourteen feet below 

 the surface. The two ingredients were mixed in the 

 proportion of about one part of sand to two of clay. In 

 a soil that is one-half clay, one-fourth sharp sand and 

 one-fourth rotten manure, a geranium grows about as 

 well as in any ordinary greenhouse soil. The noticeable 

 effect is that a more stocky growth is made. 



Indiana. Ernest Walker. 



