U02 



The Weekly Florists' Review, 



AniiL 14. 1904. 



the northwest. In this ease, dig a hole 

 in your bed large enough to hold a few 

 pails of water; fill the hole .several times 

 with water, then fill with moist soil — 

 not soggy; now set the roots in the 

 center, four inches below the surface to 

 allow for settling during the winter. 

 They should be well established and 

 start at the proper time in spring. 



Do not expect too much from your 

 plants the first season. If you order and 

 obtain good roots they will bloom the 

 first year; but, as a general rule, the 

 flowers will be small, in some instances 

 only half double and also poor in color. 

 The second year they should bloom weU 

 if they had the proper care during the 

 previous summer. 



I have never found it necessary to 

 water a peony plant, even in the most 

 prolonged drought or heat. In fact, they 

 are better for not being watered, as it 

 is very difficult to get the water down 

 ■where it will do them any good, which 

 is about eighteen t'- twenty-four inches 

 below the surface of the soil under the 

 plant. However, it will neither harm 

 nor benefit them much if watered when 

 the lawn is regularly sprinMed. Take a 

 hoe or rake and stir the ground well 

 around the plants after every such 

 •watering, and also after every rain. This 

 will keep the surface from baking and 

 allow tne moisture below to be drawn 

 up to the roots through capillary attrac- 

 tion. 



Do not cut away the dry peony tops in 

 the fall; they are the plants' natural 

 winter protection. Add some fine manure 

 and a little more coarse litter the first 

 winter. Although this is not absolutely 

 necessary to preserve the plants, yet they 

 will spring up with greater vigor if given 

 a little protection the first winter. Re- 

 move the litter and tops in spring and 

 fork in the manure carefully. 



J. F. EOSENFIELD. 



iiitting tuber was weak in eomparisou 

 to divided root propagation. It fell iu 

 exactly with my experience and proved 

 conclusively that if field roots could be 

 secured in quantity sufficient to suppiv 

 the demand, it would be far better than 

 to propagate by cuttings. 



The illustration accompanying Mr. 

 Wilmore's article last week is a fair ex- 

 hibit of comparative growth. The past 

 season I have grown from cuttings field 

 clumps that weighed over one pound, 

 but I know there are a whole lot more 

 grown that weigh less than a pound. 1 

 have also grown field clumps from divided 

 roots that, after shaking off all the dirt 

 possible without damaging the clump, 

 weighed over twenty pounds and it was 

 not any more than safe to push the clum'i 

 into a half-bushel measure. We have n'l 

 desire to carry the impression that this 

 is the average, neither is two pounds the 

 average clump grown from cuttings. The 

 cutting is not particularly weak as to 

 itself and what is expected of it, but 

 it takes two years to average the well- 

 grown dahlia clump from the divided 

 root. The best use for the cutting clump 

 is for the catalogue trade. Here it is 

 all right and worth its cost, but no bet- 

 ter than the properly divided root. Let 

 us give each their due, but stick to the 

 text. E. S. Thompson. 



HYDROCYANIC ACID GAS. 



Nearly every owner of a greenhouse is 

 interested in fumigation with hydro- 

 cyanic acid gas and many hundreds are 

 experimenting in its use. It is necessary 

 in every case to determine with great 

 care the cubic contents of the house, 

 frame or box in which the fumigation is 

 to be made. Tlie illustration shows cross 

 sections of two styles of greenhouse 

 structures now in general use. At the 

 left is an even-span house' 12x100 feet, 

 two feet on the sides, and five feet six 



Illustration of Method for Calculating Cubic Contents of Greenhouses. 



DAHLIA PROPAGATION. 



As a grower of and one interested in 

 the highest development of the dahlia 

 perhaps I may be pardoned for another 

 word under this head, as I was the inno- 

 cent cause of the ' ' weak thing ' ' cog- 

 nomen being applied to dahlia cuttings. 

 But I have no wish to recall it. I have 

 grown the dahlia for over twenty-five 

 years, have seen some of the ups and 

 downs of the flower, but still enjoy its 

 beauty as ever and am also glad for anv 

 information that will keep its right foot 

 fonvaxd and the flower on the gain. Mv 

 first outside information from a sup- 

 posedly good authority as to the weak- 

 ness of the tubers grown from cuttings 

 was received while on a visit east last 

 September. At one place thousands of 

 both kinds were growing and the in- 

 formation freely offered was that the 



inches from the surface of the beds to 

 tlie ridge, with a walk fourteen inches 

 wide and fifteen inches deep. 



To determine accurately the number of 

 cubic feet in this or a house of similar 

 construction. First, make a rough draw- 

 ing showing a cross section of the house; 

 second, divide the space into triangles 

 and rectangles by drawing a line connect- 

 ing the two wall plates and one from the 

 ridge at right angles to this; mark on 

 each its respective length in feet and 

 inches. Compute the number of cubic 

 feet in each of the rectangles and tri- 

 angles in accordance with the following 

 method : 



In the even span house shown at the 

 left the number of cubic fe«t of space in 

 the walk is found by multiplying the 

 width by the depth by the length, thus: 

 Multiply one foot two inches by one 



foot three inches by 100 feet. Reducing 

 to inches we have fourteen inches multi- 

 plied by fifteen inches by 1,200 inches 

 equals 252,000 cubic inches; dividing this 

 result by 1,728, the number of cubic 

 inches contained in a cubic foot, we have 

 145.83 cubic feet. The rectangle A D G 

 F is computed in the same way, except 

 that iu this case it is not necessary to 

 reduce the feet to inches. It would be 

 twelve feet multiplied by two feet by 

 100 feet equals 2,400 cubic feet. 



This brings us to the triangles. The 

 rule generally given for calculating the 

 area of a right-angle triangle is to multi- 

 ply the base by the perpendicular and 

 divide the product by two. The result 

 multiplied by the length of the house 

 will give the number of cubic feet the 

 triangular portion contains. For ex- 

 ample, taking the triangle ACE; six 

 feet multiplied by three feet six inches, 

 equals twenty-one feet, divided by two 

 equals 10.5 feet, multiplied by 100 feet 

 equals 1,050 cubic feet. The area of the 

 triangle BCD and the cubic feet in this 

 part of the house are determined in the 

 same way; or, in this case, since the tri- 

 angles are equal, the desired result is 

 obtained by multiplying the number of 

 cubic feet in the triangle A C E by two; 

 1,050 multiplied by two equals 2,106 

 cubic feet. The contents of this house 

 is thelefore 145.83 plus 2,400 plus 2,100 

 equals 4,045.83 cubic feet; tliis result 

 multiplied by the required dose per cubic 

 font of space will give the amount of 

 cyanide of potassium necessary for onel 

 fumigation. 



At the right of the illustration is a 

 cross section of a three-quarter span 

 house 18x100 feet, front wall four feet 

 four inches, back wall six feet four 

 inches, and eleven feet ten inches to the 

 ridge. Tlie cubic contents of this house 

 is determined in the same manner, ex- 

 cept that the two triangles being un- 

 equal, each one will have to be calculated 

 separately. The house contains 15,050 

 cubic feet. It will thus be seen that the 

 cubic contents of a house or frame of 

 any style can be readily determined by 

 simply dividing a cross section of the 

 same into the necessary number of tri- 

 angles and rectangles and calculating as 

 demonstrated above. 



After the number of cubic feet in the 

 space to be fumigated is determined, the 

 amount of cvanide required is found by 

 multiplying the cubic contents by the 

 dose per cubic foot. For example, if 

 single violets are to be fumigated the 

 dose' would bo one-tenth of a gram per 

 cubic foot. A dose, tlierefore, for the 

 even-span house, containing 4,646 cubic 

 feet would be 4.640 multiplied by .1 

 equals 464.6 grams. To reduce this to 

 ounces, divide the number of grams by 

 28.35. the number of grams in an ounce 

 avoirdupois. It is found that 464.6 di- 

 vided by 28.35 equals 16.38 ounce* 

 avoirdupois. It may be necessar.v to re- 

 duce the fraction of ounces to grains; 

 437.5. the number of grains in an ounce, 

 multiplied by .38 equals 166 grains. 



If double violets are to be fumigated 

 the cubic contents would be multiplied 

 by .15 thus: 4.646 multiplied by .15 

 equals 696.9 grams, divided by 28.35 

 equals 24.58 ounces avoirdupois. Fifty- 

 eight one-hundredths of an ounce equals 

 253 grains. In the case of a small space 

 of less than 150 cubic "feet the dose in 

 grams should first be determined, and 

 this, if necessary, can be changed to 

 grains b.y multiplying the number of 

 grams by 15.43, grains in a gram, thus: 

 thirty cubic feet multiplied by .15 gram 



