60 
The Glad Philosopher’s 
Musings. 
“ This same flower that smiles to-day, 
To-morrow will be dying. — Herrick. 
How symbolic of human life is the 
passing of a flower. It is told as a 
myth that the Roses once appealed to 
Zeus and demanded to be told why it 
was, that being so fair, yet they were 
so short-lived. He replied, “ It is be- 
cause only in your passing you are 
fair.” And so in our all too brief span 
of human life, the ever changing met- 
amorphosis gives enough variety to 
make our living attractive, and dispels 
the monotony of a mere existence 
such as characterizes inorganic beings. 
A beautiful child and a beautiful 
flower are two of God’s most wonder- 
ful masterpieces. 
Charm is a quality that cannot be 
bought, but it may be easily acquired. 
The simplest garden may have it, and 
it may be impossible in a more pre- 
tentious one. 
Sending flowers to your friends while 
living, instead of waiting for them to 
die, has a two fold advantage : they 
can be appreciated better by the re- 
cipient, and the happy occasion can be 
renewed oftener. 
In the great Rose family, embracing 
about 75 genera and over 1200 species, 
there is not known to be a noxious 
flower or a poisonous fruit, and this 
family gives bountifully of its fruits 
for the sustenance of mankind. 
The ancient Greeks used to plant 
garlic in close proximity to the roots 
of their Rose bushes in the belief that 
it would give the Roses sweeter per- 
fume. Had the ancient Greeks only 
known of the fragrant limberger 
cheese ! 
“ I didn’t have any luck at all raising 
Gladioli last year,” complained a lady 
recently to the Glad Philosopher. On 
being asked how she had planted them, 
she replied, “ I took a broom handle 
and poked holes in the ground and 
shoved the bulbs down and filled the 
holes up with dirt.” Observing me 
smile, she continued, “ maybe I didn’t 
plant them right.” Maybe she did 
not ! 
The Glad Philosopher. 
A subscriber asks about Daffodils, 
varieties Victoria and Emperor. He 
says they are inclined to come blind 
instead of flowering each year. Has 
tried leaving them in the ground all 
winter and digging them and replant- 
ing, but both methods seem to give 
about the same result. We suggested 
that perhaps the soil is not sufficiently 
rich to produce strong blooming bulbs. 
Daffodils ought to be easy to naturalize 
to most any surroundings and very 
little trouble is usually experienced. 
Can any one offer further suggestions? 
Slower (Brower 
Potash. 
By Bertha Berbert-Hammond. 
[ IV ritten expressly for The Flower Grower. ] 
The shortage of potash which was 
so keenly felt by agriculturists last 
year, promises to continue this spring, 
and to make the situation worse, in 
the wake of this acute shortage there 
has appeared in the markets brands of 
commercial fertilizers that are far be- 
low the standard. A product recently 
seized by inspectors was found to be 
not only adulterated and mis-branded 
but also short in weight. To check 
more effectively such flagrant viola- 
tions, in some states (notably in Maine) 
acts have just been introduced for the 
“ better protection against adulterated, 
mis branded or inferior commercial 
fertilizers” being manufactured or dis- 
tributed. 
There is little hope of any foreign 
potash reaching these shores this 
spring. By the provisions of “ The 
Trading with the Enemy Act,” ap- 
proved in 1917, it is still unlawful for 
any person in the U. S. to trade with 
Germany, the greatest source of the 
supply of potash. The War Trade 
Board, to which the President dele- 
gated the authority to issue licenses to 
permit the entry of commodities to 
the U. S., has agreed to prohibit the 
importation of potash from Germany, 
from which country we received be- 
fore the war nearly 260,000 tons of 
potash annually. No potash will be 
allowed to leave the Alsatian fields, 
now under French control, as it is 
sorely needed to restore the fertility of 
the thousands of acres of devasted 
land in France, or those fields that had 
deteriorated through the years of 
neglect and lack of fertilizer, as during 
the war many of the chemicals needed 
for the purpose of fertilizing were used 
for the manufacture of munitions. 
In this country some relief from the 
shortage will come from the potash 
industry established some years ago in 
June, 1919 
Nebraska, the growth of which has 
been comparatively rapid during the 
past three years. Nebraska potash, 
which is produced from the evapora- 
tion of brines from lakes and sand be- 
low the lakebeds, contains no harmful 
borax, but large proportions of car- 
bonates and sulphates. To produce 
one ton of this potash requires one and 
one-half tons of coal for making the 
steam for power and evaporating. 
The largest potash producing plant 
in the U. S. is located at Hoffland and 
cost nearly a million and a half dollars 
for the power houses, and buildings 
for the evaporation, drying, grinding 
and storing of the product. 
During the war when the scarcity of 
potash was most acute, one chemist 
in seeking for sources of the much 
needed potash found that the clouds of 
dense smoke emitted from the chim- 
neys of cement kilns, blast furnaces 
and factories contained quantities of 
potash. Means to obtain this potash 
were found, but the cost of doing it is 
prohibitive. Until some cheap process 
of “knocking down smoke” (as it is 
commonly called) is discovered, potash 
obtained from smoke is too expensive 
to be used for fertilizing. 
Fortunate, indeed, is the gardener 
who by applying the principles of con- 
servation to the compost heap and to 
all other available sources has accu- 
mulated enough fertilizing stock to 
keep up the fertility of his land by 
merely supplementing with the scarce 
and costly commercial fertilizers. 
Surely never before has it been so 
necessary or so profitable to save, and 
use carefully all materials containing 
the elements that will provide the 
proper nourishment for plants during 
their growing season. 
Owing to bad weather conditions 
planting has been so backward that it 
is doubtful if the best bloom will be in 
condition for exhibition as usual in 
time for the annual A. G. S. flower 
show in August. 
We are indebted to R. S Mackintosh, President of the Minnesota State Horticultural Society, for 
the above photograph. It shows mostly Gladioli, but the lower right hand corner is ever-bearing staw- 
berries, and there are tomatoes and sun flowers and sweet corn and a lot of other things in the photo- 
graph. The sign post says "Please protect this liberty garden.” The entire setting of the photograph 
is extremely artistic and rural. 
