Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1903-10-07
HOSPITALS FOR PLANTS.
Nurseries Have u Special Corner for
Vegetation Afflicted with
Various MaladieS.

dOdOIhS mGn OIL New YORK
have curious department in theii
business. 1t may be called the plant
hospital. In every large nursery there
is special corner set aside for ailing
plants that patrons have sent to bs
treated, for plants get out of sorts
through being under artificial condi.
tions, just as humans do, and must
either be doctored and get a change of
air or die, says the New York Press.
Plants are subject to all sorts of mala-
dies The commonest are worms. i'm
proper potting, want of washing and
too much watering. The lack or excess
or water is the commonest of all causes
Many plants, such as the palm and the
fern, when kept indoors, become as SEN
sltlve to changes of temperature as a
delicate woman. A cold draught will
set them sneezing, as it were, inside of
an hour. At best it is difficult for most
plants to thrive in living rooms. The
air is too dry and the light insufficient.
Ihls is true in general, yet plants vary
and more than people do-in the con-
ditions that agree with them. For in
stance, cacti do best in an environment
like that Of the arid desert, whilst other
tropical things require a warm, moist
climate
The effect Of Sudden changes of tenn
perature on the plant is the loss of some
OF the root hairs which are on the small
rootlets and are an important part of
the feeding apparatus. They rot. and
the plant is then unable to take enough
nourlshment. When a plant gets off its
feed general debility and nervous ex-
haustion set in. With vigor gone, the
plant falls an easy prey to all diseases
prowling round. Fungi and animal
parasites complete it's ruin.
Prof. Earle, of the New York botani-
cal garden, says: I'm the thrifty plant
there is constant balance between the
activity going ON in the leaves that
draw sustenance from the air and the
root hairs that absorb moisture and
soluble food from the SOIL Anything
that interferes with either soon throws
the plant out of health. The most un-
usual causes are lack of light, smoke
and sudden changes of temperature. The
leaves are first affected and react upon
the root hairs. When the plants begin
to drop their leaves, it may be taken as
an evidence of Illness All florists have
trouble with the begonia in this way.
The causes of diseases in plants.
besides being numerous are often OBJ
scure. They are grouped for conven-
fence as environmental, functional and
parasitic. Uncongenial surroundings
such as Improper soil conditions, too
much or too little water, the absence or
of some of the food eIe-
ments. the pollution of the air with |
smoke or gases. or unfavorable position |
as to sunlight, often cause slow and |
feeble growth that is not disease. In |
stead OF sickness it is starvation or semi |
starvation. The 'scalding of plants al |
ter heavy and long-continued rains. and |
the tip burn of lettuce and potatoea
due to burning sun after wet. cloucS
weather. illustrate this condition.
Functional diseases spring from de-
within the plant itself. 1t |
may secrete too much or too little acid.
and its organs Of nutrition get deranged.
The mosaic disease of tobacco and the
yellow disease of the China aster are
examples of too little acid or ferment
When plant gets this way 1t may be
aid to have bad attack of indigestion.
The acid Is insufficient to convert the
starch Of the green leaves into soluble