HOETICULTUEE 



September 4, 1915 



SOCIETY OF AMERICAN FLORISTS 



REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST, 

 SOCIETY OF AMERICAN FLOR- 

 ISTS AND ORNAMENTAL 

 HORTICULTURISTS. 



By W. E. Britton, Ph. D., State Entomol- 

 ogist of Connecticut. 



Chrysanthemum Pests. 



All who have been troubled by the 

 chrysanthemum leaf miner or mar- 

 guerite fly, Phytomyza chriisanthemi 

 Kowarz., should obtain Bulletin No. 157 

 of the Massachusetts Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station, Amherst, Mass., is- 

 sued recently. 



For the past twenty-five years this 

 insect has caused damage to composite 

 plants in the northern states. The 

 adult is a two-winged fly which lays 

 an egg in an incision just under the 

 epidermis of the leaf. This egg 

 hatches in five days and the larva 

 mines in the parenchyma of the leaf 

 for about two weeks when it trans- 

 forms to the pupa stage inside the leaf. 

 Two weeUs later the adult emerges. 

 There are ten generations each year. 



Spraying the plants with nicotine 

 solution is a remedy. If "Black Leaf 

 40" is the kind used it should be di- 

 luted at the rate of about 1 part in 

 400 parts of water or roughly 2 tea- 

 spoonfuls in a gallon. 



Another chrysanthemum pest new 

 to our continent is the Chrysanthe- 

 mum midge, a European insect which 

 has recently caused much damage in 

 some large commercial greenhouses in 

 Michigan. The presence of this in- 

 sect was recorded by Dr. E. P. Pelt, 

 State Entomologist of New York, in 

 Florists' Exchange, Vol. XXXIX, page 

 859, April 10, 1915. It causes a swell- 

 ing on the main stem near the surface 

 of the ground, galls or enlargements 

 on the mid-ribs of the leaves, and close 

 ill-shaped heads which ruin the plant 

 for commercial purposes. It will prob- 

 ably be difficult to control this pest. 



Further injury to chrysanthemums 

 may be here recorded by a mite, Tar- 

 sonemus palUdus Banks, mentioned in 

 my report of last year. This time it 

 occurred in October in a commercial 

 greenhouse at Hartford, Conn., and 

 many of the petals had withered and 

 turned brown. 



A New Pest of Pine Trees. 



During the past year one of the de- 

 structive European saw-flies Diprion 

 (Lophyrus) simile Hartig, has been 

 found in this country, where it has 

 apparently become established. The 

 insect passes the winter in its cocoons 

 on or under leaves and rul)bis!i near 

 the ground. There are apparently 

 three broods each year in Connecticut, 

 the cocoons of the first and seconu 

 broods often being formed on the 

 twigs. The larvae are about an inch 

 long, greenish yellow with brown 

 markings, and have the appearance 

 characteristic of sawfly larvae. They 

 feed upon the needles of several spe- 

 cies of pine, incltuling the white pine, 

 Austrian pine, Pinus dcnsiflora, P. ex- 

 celsa, and P. flcxilis. It will doubtless 

 be found to attack other species as 

 well. 



The eggs are laid in longitudinal in- 

 cisions in the needles and are placed 

 end to end. 



The cocoons are brown oval bodies 

 about three-eights of an inch long and 

 of a tough leathery texture. 



The adults have a wing-spread of 

 from about half an inch in the male to 

 three-fourths of an inch in the female. 

 The male is black, but the female has 

 yellow thorax and abdomen. 



Though this insect occurs in four 

 towns in Connecticut it will probably 

 be found in other states. Just how it 

 was brought to this counutry is not 

 known but probably cocoons came over 

 on nursery stock and either passed the 

 inspectors or perhaps came in before 

 the inspection system was established. 

 Parasites of this sawfly have been ob- 

 served in Connecticut. Spraying the 

 pine trees with lead arsenate (3 lbs. 

 in 50 gallons of water) is the best 

 remedy. 



A preliminary illustrated account of 

 this insect may be found in the Jour- 

 nal of Economic Entomology, Vol. 8, 

 pa.ae 379, June 1915. 



A Juniper Web Worm. 



Several samples have been received 

 by the writer of juniper twigs webbed 

 together by this insect. On rearing 

 the adult it proved to be Dichromcrus 

 marginelhis Fabr. Dr. E. P. Felt* has 

 recorded this insect from Long Island 

 and from the Hudson River Valley in 

 New York State. This is also a Eu- 

 ropean species which has appeared in 

 the United States during tlie past few 

 years. The real damage from it will 

 be in ornamental plantings in parks 

 and on private grounds, and doubtless 

 may be prevented by a thorough spray- 

 ing of lead arsenate early in spring 

 and again late in summer. 



•Report N. Y. State Entomologist, 26, 

 pjige 35, 1910. 



REPORT OF THE SCHOOL GARDEN 

 COMMITTEE. 



BenJ. Hammond, Chairman. 



Our country is so large that to na- 

 tionalize any movement is no small 

 work, and to hold the interest of each 

 section in any particular work or ob- 

 ject is difficult, but one effort to stir 

 up common interest certainly meets 

 with a well nigh universal apprecia- 

 tion, and that is — "School Gardening." 



The florists of this country are in a 

 trade that helps greatly to develop 

 beauty all around, and in the efforts 

 made by the Society of American Flor- 

 ists and Ornamental Horticulturists to 

 stimulate interest in some practical 

 labor by teaching in our schools a lit- 

 tle gardening and floriculture, the an- 

 swers come from many points which 

 show without question that the effort 

 is having a helpful result. 



This season our letter sent to every 

 school board or school superintendent 

 where is located a member of the S. A. 

 P. and to each and every state com- 

 missioner of education, had, as a lead- 

 ing picture the beautiful statue and 

 surrounding of Washington in the 

 Grand Avenue Park at Milwaukee. 



This picture with its spirit of emula- 

 tion represented liy the mother and 

 her boy as she directs his attention to 

 Washington as his pattern, certainly 

 seemed to strike a responsive chord. 



In one place where efforts are made 

 to have the children interested in gar- 

 dening the report comes — "the chil- 

 dren want flower seeds, and the flower 

 beds wherever started set an example. 

 The demand comes for geraniums, 

 coleus, dahlias and roses." 



The newspapers of the country are 

 paying more and more heed to this 

 flower gardening, and small yards of 

 the cities show the effect. 



Schools can never take the place of 

 parental oversight and encouragement. 

 In one dark back yard overshadowed 

 by other buildings two boys came to 

 invite us "to come see our garden." 

 Sure enough those youngsters had 

 dug up a bit of waste ground, planted 

 it, weeded and watered the ten or • 

 dozen feet square which looked like 

 an irrigated patch near Denver, Col., 

 so prolific it was, and those lads were 

 pleased. This kind of work aids to' 

 develop American citizens of character. 

 In many villages and small towns im- 

 provement societies exist, and these 

 societies are usually excellent sup- 

 porters of the florist craft directly 

 and indirectly. By small prizes well- 

 distributed the children are encour- 

 aged to keep up the home yards. 



In San Francisco this year Superin- 

 tendent Thomas L. Heaton has been 

 Inisy in his efforts for a School Gar- 

 den Exhibit at the Exposition. In San 

 Diego and Los Angeles these cities of 

 the Pacific Coast stand out bojdly in 

 the common efforts of the school au- 

 thorities to fix up and look nice, and 

 to encourage the children gardening 

 at home. This year in Los Angeles 

 we learn in a letter recently received 

 from Morris M. Rathlnin that cash 

 prizes ranging from five dollars (?5.00) 

 to the individual student home gar- 

 dener to five liundred dollars ($500) 

 for the school making the best show- 

 ing in the Exposition year in 1915 

 were distributed. This work cleaned 

 up many neglecte.i lots, turning waste 

 places into beauty spots. Los Angeles 

 to do this work well employed an ex- 

 pert teacher florist, and this work and 

 its effects is seen in many of the 

 cities and towns of the Pacific Coast. 

 At Portland, Oregon, work of this kind 

 is being carried on under the direc- 

 tion of a landscape artist from Chicago 

 who is specially employed to give in- 

 struction in this line. 



In every State in the American 

 Union this good work is being carried 

 on. School Gardening has its greatest 

 application in our great cities. School 

 Gardening aims to take hold and in- 

 terest the city boys. At a flower show 

 held in New Y^ork City in the Museum 

 of Natural History, the school children 

 came in classes to view the exhibits. 

 There were children born in congested 

 sections of New York and some of 

 them never had been in the country, 

 and their wonder at seeing so many 

 flowers was expressed without reserve. 



In the city of Philadelphia the 



