March 10. 1904. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



763 



DISPOSING OF OLD PLANTS. 



Not so very main' 3'ears ago it was 

 the practice to consign to the rubbish 

 heap all the old plants thrown out when 

 preparations were begun for replanting 

 the rose houses. But lately it has been 

 found that there is a profitable market 

 for the Beauty plants and very many 

 thousands are sold each spring for plant- 

 ing in the garden. At first the sale was 

 through the houses which have big mail 

 trade, but soon the florists through the 

 country were each buying a few hundred 

 plants from some big grower and retail- 

 ing them to their home trade. But it re- 

 mained for that enterprising firm, the 

 Heller Bros., of New Castle, to demon- 

 strate the feasibility of going direct to 

 the public with their offer of plants. 

 This they did last year for the first 

 time, expending several hundreds of dol- 

 lars in advertising in magazines of large 

 circulation. They asked what looked to 

 the trade like a big price for the plants, 

 but offered to prepay all stock to desti- 

 nation. A good price was necessary to 

 cover cost of advertising when, as in the 

 Ladies ' Home Journal, space cost $84 

 an inch for one insertion; but that the 

 results were satisfactory is shown by 

 the fact that they are at it again this 

 spring with some very attractive adver- 

 tisements. 



CUTTING BENCH FUNGUS. 



Kindly give me some remedy for fun- 

 gus in the cutting bed. It is almost im- 

 possible for us to get new sand during 

 the winter and we have had a great deal 

 of trouble with fungus lately. Would 

 sterilizing the sand answer the purpose, 

 and how would you go about it, or what 

 else would you recommend? L. 6. 



If fresh, clean sand cannot be had the 

 next best move would be to get coke 

 screenings from the nearest gas house. 

 I have never known bench fungus to af- 

 fect cuttings where this material was 

 used as the propagating medium, but as 

 a precaution it would be well to thor- 

 oughly wash the bench and give it a coat 

 of hot lime wash before filling. When 

 the sand is so badly infected as this ap- 

 pears to be, it is taking too much of a 

 risk to use it again, even after being 

 sterilized, the latent spores of such low 

 forms of vegetable life being very diffi- 

 cult to destroy. Eibes. 



THE READERS' CORNER. 



Fifiag and Other Notes. 



Ed. Eeview: — I am glad to see that 

 you give night firemen space in your 

 paper to express their views, as it gives 

 the novice a chance to learn and ask 

 questions. I quite agree with the fire- 

 man who has nineteen houses and two 

 boilers ; he does not need any odd jobs 

 to keep him awake. I at present have 

 two houses, one 20x50 feet, the other 

 20x30 feet, standing end to end. The 

 partition has been taken out and they 

 are operated as one house. There is an- 

 other house 20x100, which we are not 

 running yet. These houses stand east 

 and west, contrary to local greenhouse 

 etiquette. I suppose the builder, like the 

 tailor, cut his garment according to his 

 cloth. I have a small boiler, with fifty 

 2-inch flues, and a high brick smoke- 

 stack. Firing is comparatively easy and 

 I am glad of small jobs to pass away 

 the time. 



Mme. Chatenay as Exhibited at Ddtroit by Peter Reinberg. 



One question I would like to have ex- 

 plained by some of the craft is why a 

 fire consumes more coal the first half of 

 the night than the second half. Whether 

 the temperature be cold or moderate out- 

 side, I burn a third more coal from 7 

 p. m. to midnight than I do from mid- 

 night to 7 a. m. I hold the temperature 

 inside steadily at from 60 to 65 degrees. 

 I would like to know what slack coal is 

 costing in the States. Here in Outario, 

 at present prices, a good sized coal pile 

 is better than a small bank account. 



George Lloyd, who up to three years 

 ago ran a general florist, and nursery 

 business in Napanee, has had some ex- 

 perience in starting up plants in mid- 

 winter. Two 3'ears ago last December 

 he thawed out two houses for Miss L. 

 'Sullivan, of West Superior, Wis., and 

 brought them out successfully. On Jan- 

 uary 2d he took charge of where I now 

 fire. It was in a verv dilapidated con- 

 dition, everything frozen up, over 200 

 panes of glass out and snow two feet 

 eleep in some parts of the houses. He 

 patched the glass, started the fires and 

 proceeded to build benches and fill them. 

 He has radishes, cucumbers and lettuce 

 up and a stock of florist 's plants under 

 way for spring. Sunshine is a vei'y 

 scarce article here; too much zero wea- 

 ther. E. E. NORVELL. 



Tuberous Begonias. 



Ed. Eeview:— I notice that G. F. H.. 

 in your issue of February IS, asks for 

 suggestions regarding suitable plants to 

 grow in beds on the east side of a resi- 

 dence shaded on the south by tal! trees, 

 but getting the morning sun. The gor- 



geous tuberous begonia will distance all 

 competition in such a situation, or on 

 the north side of a house. It is a mag- 

 nificent flower anel when once tried in 

 such a location, where it will not get 

 the hot sun between 11 a. m. and 4 

 p. m., will never be abandoned. The 

 singles are the best bedders. I have 

 grown them for the past seven summers 

 on the Michigan Eeformatorv grounds, 

 Avith prison labor without the aid of 

 a florist, so I assume the\' are not dif- 

 ficult to handle. For early flowering I 

 start them uneler glass about April 1, 

 or they may be planted in the open 

 ground the first week in May amd will 

 flower the mieldle of Jul.v. 



^ Otis Fuller. 



Twinned Boilers. 



Ed. Eeview: — In answer to F. W. 

 in Review of January 14, I would say 

 avoid cheek valves; they are a delusion 

 and a snare. I woulel suggest that you 

 have the returns enter the boiler No. 1 

 onl}'. Have it come in half way up the 

 diameter of the boiler; elo not enter at 

 bottom. Place a good, tested valve in 

 the return close to the boiler. Next mn 

 a pipe from No. 1 to No. 2, placing a 

 valve in it facing No. 2, tapping into 

 each boiler half way up the side. Con- 

 nect both boilers to the flow at the top, 

 placing a valve on each boiler. To op- 

 erate we fire No. 2 the hardest. When 

 the water gets low in the gauge of No. 

 2 wo go to No. 1 and close the valve on 

 the return' to prevent the water from 

 backing out into the mains. Close the 

 valve on the top of No. 1 to raise the 

 steam pressure, open the valve connecting 



