Henry Bradley Plant

“ In these enterprises it was the purpose of Mr.{162} Plant and his associates to extend and add to the various properties, and they believed this could best be accomplished under a single organization with ample powers. With this object in view, several of his associates being residents of Connecticut, the birth-place of Mr. Plant, a charter was obtained in 1882 from the legislature of that State, and the Plant Investment Company organized. Mr. Plant became president, and remained such to the present time. Among his associates were W. T. Walters and B. F. Newcomer, of Baltimore ”

“ The west coast of Florida, Alabama, and the portions of the country around the Plant System in Georgia, sent thousands of people to the Atlanta Exposition for the celebration of Plant System Day at the Exposition. They have been coming on special trains since yesterday morning. To-day Mr. H. B. Plant celebrated his seventy-sixth birthday, and to-day is Plant System Day at the Exposition. Officials and employees from all the railway, steamship, and express lines controlled by Mr. Plant, and numbering nearly 5000 men, are here to celebrate the day. ”

“ William7 Wrigley, married (1) , November, 1866, Annie Mellard; married (2) , Ida McPherson.
VI. Timothy Henry6 Plant, born February 1, 1808; died January 4, 1871; married, August 28, 1834, Sarah Maria Peck, of Kensington, Connecticut, born September 14, 1814. He and his brother, Increase Cook6 Plant, were together at Columbia in the store of their older brother, and from there went to Augusta, Georgia, and established a book business under the firm name of “T. H. & I. C. Plant.”
1. Augusta M.7 Plant, residence, Macon, Georgia. ”

“ In and over and through this dreamful spot, away up the side of the mountain, thread and run such indescribable wealth of vegetation that, as you look again and again, the clustered, shining houses seem like great white grapes bursting through a glorious wealth of vines and leaves. ”

“ Hence the luxuriant hotel, with all its home comforts, its artistic adornments, and its princely entertainment, beauty for the eye, music for the ear, feasting the æsthetic while feeding the materialistic nature of man. All this enjoyment, while a soft, balmy air is breathed beneath a clear, blue sky, and while the invalid is bathed in the bright, warm sunshine of a southern clime, induces repose, peace, content, happiness, and health. ”

“ It shows that we must not accuse our modern sensation lovers, either in botany or any other science, of being the only ones to add artifice to nature. The green Carnation has been chosen to typify the decadence and monstrosity of the end of the nineteenth century; but nearly two hundred years ago a London fruit and flower grower, named Richard Bradley, wrote a treatise upon field husbandry and garden culture, and in it he tells of a green Carnation which "a certayn fryar" produced by grafting a Carnation upon a Fennel stalk. ”

“ If, however, a new bed can be made somewhere else, the plants will thrive better upon it. Unless there are serious objections, a change of ground is always advantageous; for no matter how lavishly the plot is enriched, the strawberry appears to exhaust certain required constituents in the soil. Continued vigor is better maintained by wood-ashes perhaps than by any other fertilizer, after the soil is once deepened and enriched, and it may be regarded as one of the very best tonics for the strawberry plant. ”

“ Nature's annual weeds flourish for a while in the same spot; but, having exhausted the peculiar nutriment in the soil which sustained them, they degenerate and migrate to a fresh locality. The plants which the farmers grow are chiefly annuals. But, in fact, two crops of the same kind of wood on the same soil is not according to the arboriculture which nature teaches. "The plant bursts from the earth, grows, bears its produce, and drops the matured seed to reproduce itself." ”

“ In cases where plants are required of considerable size, for hedge-rows or park-standards, it is matter of doubt, how far frequent removals in nursery, or cutting of roots, is profitable. This occasions fibrous matted roots, which tend much to the success of the ultimate removal, and to the growth of the plant for several years after; but, by checking the disposition the roots naturally have to extend by several wide-diverging leaders, probably unfit the plant for becoming a large tree. ”

“ The work of the leaves of house plants is often interfered with by not giving them sufficient sunlight. Garden and field plants are sometimes planted so thick that they crowd each other and shut the light and air from each other, or weeds are allowed to grow and do the same thing, the result being that the leaves cannot do good work and the plant becomes weak and sickly. Weeds are destroyed by pulling them up and exposing their roots to the sun. This should be done before the weeds blossom, to prevent them from producing fresh seeds for a new crop of weeds. ”

“ The rubber requires—and deserves—a good rich soil, and in the spring, summer and fall, all the water that the soil will keep absorbed. Give less in winter, as an excess at this time causes the leaves to turn yellow and droop.
As the rubber is more difficult to propagate than most house plants, and specimens will not get too large for several years, it will be best to get plants from the florist. It frequently happens, however, that an old plant which has been grown up to a single stem, becomes unwieldy, and bare at the bottom. ”

“ From the time seeds are put into the ground, cultivation must be continual, raking between rows being frequent enough to destroy embryo weeds. Ten minutes’ light work with a rake before weeds develop will save hours of hard labour with a hoe. Cultivation is required, not only to destroy weeds, but to supply air, and encourage all the moisture from the subsoil to travel upward, so nourishing the plant roots as they develop, and preventing the soil from baking. Not cultivating the ground around plants is as injurious to their health as shutting a child in an unventilated room. ”

“ It happens that the flowers of some varieties of strawberries have a great many pistils but no stamens, or very few stamens, and there is not pollen enough to fertilize all of the blossoms, and when such a variety is planted it is necessary to plant near it some variety that produces many stamens and therefore pollen enough to fertilize both varieties in order to be sure of a crop. ”

“ Press the ground firmly against the roots, but not on the bud. The soil just over this should be fine and mellow, so that the young shoot can push through easily, which it will soon do if the plants are in good condition. Except in the extreme South, spring is by far the best time for planting, and it should be done early, while the buds are dormant. After these begin to grow, keep the ground mellow and free from weeds. The first effort of the young plant will be to propagate itself. It will sprawl over the ground if left to its wild impulses, and will not make an upright bearing bush. ”

“ The soil may have a little extra leaf-mould and should slope toward the edges of the pot, to prevent the possibility of any water collecting at the crown of the plant, which must be left well above the soil when potting.
The easiest way to get plants is to buy small ones from the florist every spring. They may be raised from seed successfully, however, if one will take care to give them a shaded, cool location during the hot summer months, such as a coldframe covered with protecting cloth, or any light material that will freely admit air. ”

“ To protect them from the frost, a reed-hurdle, or even a few branches of fir, may be used, but, of course, a box-frame and light is the best. Parsley likes a deep soil, not too rich; and a good quantity of soot worked into it much improves the plants.
Caraway is raised from seed, which should be sown in the autumn, and it may also be sown in March or April, but the result will not be so good. This plant likes a rich, light soil. Dill should be sown in the spring, either broadcast or in drills, six to twelve inches apart. ”

“ The method of propagating these plants must in each species be adapted to the habit and mode of growth. The easiest and safest plan for the vast majority is by division, but seeds, cuttings, layers, offsets, and very rarely roots, are also utilized. It is important that artificial means of increase should only be adopted where the individual plants are in robust health. With many orchids the struggle of life under the unnatural conditions we supply, is necessarily severe, and any operation which transforms one weak plant into two or more weaker ones, is to be deprecated. ”

“ This will keep the fruit clean and conserve the moisture in the soil, and you can stop cultivating. If plants are the main object, then you can not use the mulching, but must keep the cultivator going between the rows. Well informed growers of the strawberry plant generally have beds on purpose for fruit in one place, and in another place one to grow plants.
No one will make a success in growing strawberries unless he can learn to detect the rogues that appear from time to time in strawberry patches or in the fields. ”

“ When Parsley has stood some time it becomes coarse, but the young growth may be renewed by cutting over; this operation being also useful to defer the flowering, which is surely hastened by leaving the plants alone. For the winter supply a late plantation made in a sheltered spot will usually suffice, for the plant is very hardy; but it may be expedient sometimes to put old frames over a piece worth keeping, or to protect during hard weather with dry litter. A few plants lifted into five-inch pots and placed in a cool house will often tide over a difficult period. ”

“ There is likewise something missing in the modus operandi of scattering the seeds. They have no wings, and the wind is powerless to carry them. They are as bitter as quinine and no bird, squirrel, or mouse will plant, carry, or touch them. Nature appears to have forgotten to provide any other means for dispersing the seeds of this remarkable tree. ”

“ Be selective, pass up the symmetrical specimens that are best for ordinary landscaping purposes, and look for that one plant in a thousand, the one with interesting “character”—peculiarity of shape, irregular branches, low horizontal growth, stocky or twisted trunk. The most ideal plant has its largest branch near the base, and has no regular or opposite branches to be pruned away. Next to above-ground development in importance, is the below-ground root system. To be ideal, the root system should be a compact, shallow mass rather than one long taproot with a few offshoots. ”

“ Every bare spot in your strawberry rows reduces your profits. If for any reason an occasional plant should fail to grow, these vacant places should be filled in as soon as possible to form unbroken rows thereby making every square foot of your ground contribute its full share toward the crop.
In spots where only one or two plants are missing, the vacancy may be filled by allowing the adjoining plants to form the necessary runner plants and layering them in the proper place. ”

“ Meanwhile, as the subterranean shoots increase in number, the older ones, connecting the successive growths, die off year by year, liberating the already rooted side-branches as so many separate plants; and so on indefinitely. Cutting these running rootstocks into pieces, therefore, by the hoe or the plough, far from destroying the plant, only accelerates the propagation; it converts one many-branched plant into a great number of separate individuals. ”

“ Only with the introduction of grass seeding did it become possible to keep a sufficient amount of stock, not only to maintain the fertility of the soil, but to improve it steadily. The soil instead of being taxed year after year under the heavy strain of grain crops was being renovated by the legumes that gathered nitrogen from the air and stored it on tubercles attached to their roots. The deep roots of the clover penetrated the soil, that no plow ever touched. ”

“ You can also harvest seeds from your own plants; but only natural species will “come true.” Complicated hybrids will have unpredictable offspring, most of them not particularly desirable.
We plant seeds of most biennials and perennials in June, when the soil is comfortably warm and the seedlings will have the whole summer to grow large and lusty. Some of our own seeds that ripen in midsummer are planted as soon as we can harvest them; those that mature later are usually stored on a cool shelf in the cellar in plastic boxes or little pill bottles that keep them dry. ”

“ The roots must not be disturbed, but the ball turned out entire; and put as much earth as will raise the ball within about an inch of the rim of the pot. Press the earth down around it with a thin-narrow piece of wood, frequently shaking it that no vacancy may be left. If the roots are rotten, or otherwise injured, take all such off. If this be the case, the plant will be sickly. Give it a new pot of a smaller size, administering water moderately until there are visible signs of fresh growth. The plants must not be disturbed while flowering ”

“ When the soil is ready the transplanter grasps a handful of the plants, twists off 3 or 4 inches of the blades, leaving the plant about 6 inches long, and, while holding the plants in one hand, with the other she rapidly thrusts them one by one into the soft bed. They are placed in fairly regular rows, and are about 5 inches apart. The planter leans enthusiastically over her work, usually resting one elbow on her knee—the left elbow, since most of the women are right-handed—and she sets from forty to sixty plants per minute. ”