Peace Loving Plants
The Royal Horticultural Society is urging us all not to postpone our orders to nurserymen. It might argue its case with even greater urgency, for the last War provided an example botanically curious as well as nationally important. When the War was over strawberry plants were found to have lost some 4o or 5o per cent. of their fertility ; and it took a number of years to restore it. The nurseryman's and florist's art is a continuous struggle against degeneration. If the effort is relaxed even for a year the consequent lack of quality may mean a renewed struggle of several years. Some parts of the bigger nurseries are being converted into wheat- fields, and there is danger that some rare shrubs may be wholly lost and many fruit-trees of considerable value uselessly scrapped. Apples, of course (which are a bumper crop), are a valuable food ; and in war-time especially, that unique and as yet unanalysed by-product, pectin, is appreciated by food- preservers. Its manufacture is being increased. Astonishing amounts of it were imported by Germany from the moment that butter became scarce.
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