Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women - Wise Acres Yearbook (Ambler, PA)

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Oh, beautiful for meadows wide, For fields of golden corn, For verdant woodland privacies And crimson skies at dawn! O, Alma Mater! Ambler dear! Our hymn to thee we raise, In every space God give 11 is grace To beautify thy ways. Oh, glorious for autumn days, When rich the harvest yields. For beauties of thy western skies. For winds that sweep thy fields! O. Alma Mater! Ambler dear! God shed His light o'er thee And give increase without surcease, And nobler let thee be! O, dearly loved for April hours, For days of toil and ease. For beauties of thy garden wavs, And music of thy bees! O. Alma Mater! Ambler dear! Let hopes replace thy fears, And grant God s hand may let thee stand Firm through the changing years! Victorious for future days,' When over all the earth Thy daughters bear thy lessons far. And nobly prove thy worth ! O. Alma Mater! Ambler dear! God bless thee ever more, Thy name we sing, oh, let it ring From East to Western shore ! Louise Carter, Class of 1916. 3 v

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4 WISE-ACRES 4 Vol. iv March, 1918. No. 16 Published Quarterly by the Students of the School of Horticulture for Women, Ambler, Pa. Entered at the Ambler Post Office as Second-Class Matter STAFF Editor-in-Chicf, Beatrice George Associate Editor, Helen Belda Exchange Editor, Eleanor Gebhart Business Manager, Beatrice L. William Associate Business Manager, Elsie Schedin Advertising Editor, Ruth A. Gerhard Associate Advertising Editor, Marion Meredith Secretary, Ruth A. Gerhard One Dollar a Year Single Copy, Twenty-five Cents EDITORIAL. Spring is at hand and with it comes a feeling of hope and thanksgiving. Ve have stood shoulder to shoulder through the dark months of the severe winter and shall continue to work side by side under Nature’s gentler aspect. This spring brings with it greater problems than ever before. We are all feeling new responsibilities and wish to meet them fairly. For months our motto has been: “Food will win the war; don't waste it.” We must now grow the next year’s supply. We are called upon to double our production of the staple products and to raise the number of individual gardens to five million. At first sight this does not seem easy when we realize the shortage of seed, fertilizer, and labor. These difficulties can and will be overcome, however. To do so we must use our present supply of seeds very economically, saving our own for next year; we must supplement what fertilizers we are able to get with lime and green manures; and we must cultivate our ground to the greatest advantage with the aid of those enthusiastic women and girls who make up the farm labor units. Above all we must be efficient and waste neither time nor energy. To be efficient one must have knowledge. To disseminate knowledge is the mission of every school and of ours in particular, whose influence has increased far beyond its years,and since the war, has grown by leaps and bounds. It cannot stand aloof but is working whole heartedly with many others. Realizing the great need of the country, we long to be out helping in even a small way. At present, however, we must study and make mistakes, for we are as but children learning to stand alone—yet, before long, we shall each have a part to play. What a thrill there is in real service—it enobles and makes joyous every work! 2

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t!Jta filse nf tme on the Calcium is one of the elements essential to plant life. It plays an important part in the formation of the plant tissues, particularly those of the leaves and stems. A scarcity of it dwarfs plants and diminishes their hardiness. The amount present in the soil may vary from scarcely any to nearly 20 per cent. Soils that contain half of one per cent, of calcium usually have an ample supply of it in a form that plants can use. Nearly all of the compounds in which it occurs are slightly soluble in soil water, and the supply of available calcium in a given soil may be lost by leaching out. All of the chemical compounds of calcium used to improve the soil are popularly referred to as lime, though this use of the term is not accurate. Gypsum, or land plaster, does not correct soil acidity, as do the other compounds of calcium that are used on the land, and it will not be included under the term lime in this article. Lime is beneficial to the soil in several ways: As a direct fertilizer, by neutralizing acids in the soil and favoring the work of useful soil organisms, by setting free other elements of plant food already present in the soil but not available previously, and by improving the physical condition of the land. The supply of calcium as an element of plant food is ample in most soils; but it is usually much needed for its other beneficial effects. A few crops, as potatoes, tomatoes, and strawberries, prefer slightly acid soils; but most farm and garden crops thrive better in alkaline soils. This is notably true of the clovers. Newly cleared land is usually acid and newly drained swamp land is nearly always so. Most commercial fertilizers leave acid residues in the soil, and most cultivated crops remove larger amounts of bases than of acids from the soil. In all these cases of soil acidity, lime is the most satisfactory and economical corrective agent. Most soils that have been under cultivation fifty or a hundred years need lime, unless it has been applied as a fertilizer. Even soils underlaid by limestone, that have been tilled a long while, are frequently greatly benefited by liberal applications of lime. If phosphates be applied to a soil poor in available calcium, they are acted upon by other bases and changed to compounds that it is difficult for the plant to use. A liberal application of lime just before the addition of a phosphate, causes it to take a form readily available to common crops. The nitrifying bacteria, by whose agency the nitrogen of the soil air is made available to clover and related plants and is incorporated as nitrates in the soil, cannot thrive permanently where conditions are not alkaline. 4