532 



HOETICULTUKE 



September 2, 1916 



INSECT PROBLEMS OF THE FLOR- 

 IST AS SEEN BY AN 

 ENTOMOLOGIST. 



By Thomas J. Headlee. Entomologist for 

 the Society of American Florists and Orna- 

 mental Horticulturists. 



When invited by your worthy Sec- 

 retary to address you. it occurred to 

 the writer that the Entomologist's 

 view of your insect problems might 

 l)ring something suggestive and per- 

 haps useful, and his invitation was 

 accepted at once. It should be under- 

 stood at the outset that the writer is 

 and has for many years been a profes- 

 sional entomologist and that his view i 

 Tvill necessarily differ from that of 

 many florists. ' 



The insect pests, which the florist | 

 must combat successfully or make a 

 failure of his business, depend very 

 largely on the kind of crops which he 

 grows and to a minor extent upon 

 the locality in which he works. The 

 insects which trouble the rose grower 

 in a period of five or ten years are 

 pretty much the same wherever his 

 plant may be located, and the longer 

 he grows the crop continuously the 

 larger and more complete will his list 

 •of rose parasites become. This is true 

 because the principal enemies of the 

 rose forms a more or less well defined 

 group and the practice of importing 

 plants from other growers provides 

 for the distribution of the parasites. 



Perhaps the species that come into 

 the roses directly from the local en- 

 vironment will exhibit the greatest 

 irregularity in type and number be- 

 cause their attempts to enter are con- 

 tinuous and the conditions must be 

 especially favorable to permit them 

 to persist at all. The florist is in a 

 class quite by himself in the ability 

 to sterilize his soil, and to practice 

 clean culture and rotation of crops. 

 His extremely intensive system of 

 cultivation justifies a procedure in 

 these matters that would be prohibi- 

 tive for the farmer, fruit grower or 

 even the trucker. Furthermore, the 



4- 



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 p««t>. Why bather with HTeral «pr»7a 

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I.OOK FOB THE rVT LEAr TKADS 

 MABK. 



Ash voar de-aler or writ^ 



EASTERN CHEMICAL CO., BOSTON 



Whys and Wherefores 



of Fall Spraying 



is the title of a little booklet, giving seven 

 reasons, official and non-official, why il is the 

 best time to spray. This booklet will be sent 

 out by the B. G. Pratt Co., 50 Church St., 

 New York, manufacturersof the well-known 

 "SCALECIDE"ata very early date. If you 

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 and your dealer's name and you will re- 

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 houses, and on Plants, Grape Vines, Trees and Shrubs 



Some comnion Sucking Insects, magnified. 



HAMMOND'S PAINT & SLUG SHOT WORKS, Beacon. N. Y. 



florist who grows under glass has the 

 climate under his control. 



With the climate and the soil at his 

 beck and call it would seem that the 

 plant parasite problems of the florist 

 should be easy of solution. As a matter 

 of fact, the crops of the florist pay their 

 toll to the insect pests to almost if 

 not quite as great an extent as do 

 those of the farmer, fruit grower or 

 trucker. 



It seems to the writer that there 

 are two reasons for this condition — 

 one that the plants are grown under 

 forcing conditions and do not there- 

 fore have the strength and resistance 

 of those grown under more natural 

 circumstances, and second, that flor- 

 ists acting much like other growers 

 of plants do not take advantage of 

 their opportunities to rid their crops 

 of plant parasites. 



It seems reasonable to consider 

 cleaning the soil as an important step 

 toward getting rid of injurious plants. 

 Under field conditions this can best be 

 brought about through good drainage, 

 clean culture and rotation of crops. 

 [Tnder glass house conditions this can 

 best be accomplished by sterilization 

 with steam or carbon bisulphide. 

 Cleaning the soil does not mean that 

 its liveliness shall be destroyed, but 

 rather that its life and response shall 

 be improved. Indeed, where the most 

 severe treatments are used desirable 

 bacteria that may be killed in the 

 process can be largely replaced. 



It is reasonable to consider the 

 practice of absolute cleanliness about 

 the field and gla>« house as another 

 important step in the control of plant 

 parasites. Under field conditions this 

 state of things is incidental to clean- 

 ing the soil, but under gla.-^ it is not 

 necessarily so. As often as the crop 

 is removed the house should be given 

 a complete cleaning and sterilization. 



With a clean soil in a clean environ- 

 ment clean plants are needed to pro- I 

 duce a clean crop. In obtaining plants 

 free from parasites, the florist finds I 

 his chief difficulty and there appears 

 to be no very good way of getting 

 around it. Perhaps the best method 

 is that of carefully examining all in- 

 coming plants and rejecting or treat- 

 ing all that exhibit signs of such a 

 character that the plants live for a 

 period of years, the placing of the re- 

 cently arrived plants, which seem 

 healthy, in an entirely separate part 

 of the glass house system where they 

 may remain for a time sufficient for 

 the parasitism to develop, followed by 



Tha Bacocnlied Standard Inaeetleida. 

 A aprar rein»dy for Kre«D, black, whlla 

 tj, thrlpa and loft acale. 



Qaart, tl.OO; Gallon, M.M. 



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A 11% nlrotln* aolitlon praparly «llata4 

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Qaart, Sl.M: Oallaa. M.**. 



rntll farther nnilr* nhlpmenta on oar 

 prodBcta rrNOINB. TKKHIM and SOA. 

 Link will ba aabjact t« caadlttoaa tt tk* 

 cbamlcal markat. 



Prompt ablpmenri mn Ne suaraDtead om 

 APniVK and MIKOTLAMA. 



Apfame Manufactunng Co. 



MADISON. N. J. 



hdNURES 



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31 Union Stock Yarda, Chicago 



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APHIS PUNK 



For Fumigating 



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ST. LOtJIS 



