November 22, 1913 



HOETICULTUEE 



699 



ROSE GROWING UNDER 

 GLASS 



CONDUCTED BY 



cSi^^yt^<y^ 



Questions by our readers in line witli any of tlie topics 

 presented on this page will be cordially received and promptly 

 answered bv Mr, Ruzicka. Such '-ommunication should inva- 

 riably be addressed to the office of HORTICULTURE. 



Holiday Time 



Once more the holidays are coming, and that means a 

 good deal to our trade, as well as to other lines of 

 Irasiness. Places doing retail work had better be well 

 supplied with all the necessary materials from paper to 

 the boxes that the fancy trade demands. Doubtless 

 many growers will make the mistake so often made, and 

 will try to hold the cut flowers back so as to get the 

 benefit of the higher prices then paid. This is aU right 

 when it is well done, but should never be carried to any 

 extreme. Never attempt to hold the cut blooms long 

 enough to impair the quality of the same. Eemember 

 that all the cut flowers go to the retailer before they find 

 iheir way into someone's home, and it may take two days 

 or more to make the trip from the wholesale house to the 

 home, and then they are expected to last there for a 

 while, or at least ought to, for the home where poor 

 flowers arrived will no doubt be without them for a 

 while to come. Help to sell your own stock as well as 

 do a good thing for the trade in general by always 

 ha\ing your stock top-notch, the very best it is possible 

 to produce. 



Holding the Plants Back 



This is another practise that must not be carried to 

 any extreme or serious trouble may result, for when the 

 plants are checked right in the midst of the season it will 

 take something to start them again. It may be very well 

 to retard the plants just a little to keep the buds from 

 iipeniug too rapidly, and thus hold them a day or two 

 longer, but to reduce the temperature away down to hold 

 the whole crop is a matter that none of us should attempt 

 to have anything to do with. Four degrees less than the 

 ngular temperature is about as low as we would let any 

 of our growing houses get, and we think it is about the 

 limit. Should you wish to use the house for other plants 

 than roses after the holidays are over then of course it 

 will pay to run the plants for all that they are worth, 

 running the house so as to get most out of it while it 

 lasts, and letting it sro when it is through. 



Wood for Propagation 



Now as soon as the rush is over the propagation of 

 the coming season's plants will begin in earnest. Many 

 -rowers will depend on the blind wood that the roses 

 produce for the necessary material, but we find that it 

 liays in the long run to set aside the required number of 

 plants and pinch all the buds aS soon as they appear, 

 and tlien let the wood ripen enough to be used, and then 

 cut it up as soon as possible. This will give good cut- 

 tings as a rulie, cuttings that will root almost 

 evenly and produce plants that will be very 

 much the same grade. This is just what is 

 wanted, for the more even the plants are in 

 growth and size the better will they be to handle and 

 grow to produce good results. With Beauties it is much 

 the same. Surely you are not encouraging the flowering 



qualities of the plants by using blind wood to make cut- 

 tings from. We would not advise using the wood that 

 bears buds for that is far too expensive. There is 

 plenty of nice flowering wood on the plants that can be 

 used and will answer the purpose very well. 



The Fire in the Propagator 



Do not wait until you are ready to put the cuttings 

 into the sand before you start the fire in the boiler to 

 heat the sand in which the cuttings are to be inserted. 

 Have the sand warm two or three days at least before 

 the cuttings are put in. This will give you a chance to 

 .see if the sand heats well, and if there are any places 

 that run too cold to root the cuttings. This can be 

 remedied before the cuttings are put in, and if delayed 

 will pi-ove very bothersome, to say the least. Have all 

 in running order before you cut tlie wood for your cut- 

 tings, and you will have much better success than to 

 attempt to save a little coal. A bench of cuttings is 

 worth much more than a few shovels of coal; at least 

 we find it so, and we run things accordingly. 



Gardeners and Lockjaw (Tetanus) 



Agricultural laborers and gardeners are very subject 

 to infection by the bacilli of tetanus, because their work 

 brings them into contact with the soil and especially 

 soils containing organic manures in which the bacillus 

 appears to go through one of the cycles of its existence. 

 Greenhouse soils by their high manurial content and 

 the heat and moisture in which they are environed are 

 veritable hot beds of incubation for tetanus bacilli. As 

 in the nature of things the greenhouse-man's hands 

 must be, during working hours, contaminated to a 

 greater or less extent by the soil and as he is very fre- 

 quently using a knife or working among roses whose 

 loving embraces are very liable to make "the red blood 

 flow," it is a wonder that infection is not more common 

 than it is. Fortunately our blood contains the requisite 

 resistant qualities to oppose the inroads of this terri- 

 ble disease, else few would escape. But once in a while 

 a direful calamity occurs and some vigorous man is 

 cut off in his prime. Such as a few years ago was the 

 ease with James Brydon of South Lancaster, Mass., 

 than whom no brighter light ever illumined the gar- 

 dening profession, and from time to time we see it re- 

 corded in our horticultural press where some man has 

 died from lockjaw resulting from the scratch of a rose 

 thorn or some other trivial wound which has opened 

 the gates for this insidious foe. And the pity of it all 

 is that a little timely cauterization or disinfectant 

 would have prevented these sad deaths. 



The object of this article is to bring home to all who 

 read It the ever-present danger of "infection by this 

 dreadful disease, and more especially by means of slio-ht 

 scratches and bruises which quickly heal over, as herein 

 lies the greater danger, the germ being avaerobic (can 

 only grow where free oxygen is excluded) it is these 

 little neglected wounds that should be opened and 

 cleansed with some good antiseptic such as peroxide of 

 hydrogen or a solution of carbolic acid. It may and 

 does seem like a lot of trouble to bother to dis/nfect 

 every little scratch or bruise but if you once saw a 

 person die of tetanus you would think it well worth 

 while even if the chances of contracting the disease are 

 somewhat remote. 



Lenox, Mass. 



^J^^ACt^j^. 



