12 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



an exhibit should be seen by every man, woman and child in the 

 city. Each day of the convention I saw classes of pupils from 

 their high schools studying the exhibit or listening to some dem- 

 onstration by one of the college professors. This struck me as 

 .a very fine thing, an idea that we might adopt with profit. 



The Commercial Club entertained the convention Tuesday 

 evening at a theater party, and on Wednesday evening the annual 

 banquet was held in a beautiful tea room. This was largely at- 

 tended, the dainty menu and the eloquent and witty toasts com- 

 bining to produce a most perfect evening. 



I found Des Moines a very beautiful city, with the begin- 

 nings of a Civic Center, that, if carried out, will make it famed 

 throughout our country, and its people, and those from the dif- 

 ferent parts of the state, earnest, progressive and the kindest 

 ever. Much credit is due Mr. Wesley Greene, the secretary of the 

 Horticultural Society, for the very fine programs and general 

 arrangements, contributing so largely to the success and pleasure 

 of the meetings, and also to its cultured and genial presiding 

 officer, Mr. W. B. Chapman. 



Insect Enemies of Roses and How to Combat Them. — In the path 

 to easy success with roses lie numerous insect pests which, unless pre- 

 vented, will devour leaves or suck juices, thus seriously impairing the 

 vitality of the plants. The only way in which the rose gardener may 

 prevent these attacks is by careful and insistent spraying with insecticides. 



Insects which most commonly affect roses, according to specialists of 

 the U. S. Department of Agriculture, are of two general types, those 

 which eat the foliage, as rose slugs and the rose chafer, and those which 

 suck the sap, as aphids, scale insects and thrips. The presence of leaf- 

 eating insects is usually first detected through the discovery of partially 

 eaten leaves or of skeletonized leaves; that is, leaves from which a portion 

 of the lower or upper surface has been eaten, leaving the other surface 

 as a transparent membrane, or leaves the fleshy part of which has been 

 eaten clear through, often leaving merely the midrib and veins. The dis- 

 covery of the enemy frequently follows. Protection from this sort of 

 attack is afforded by hand picking or by covering both surfaces of the 

 foliage thoroughly with some poisonous substance, as arsenate of lead. 

 Wherever a garden hose is available, a strong stream of water directed 

 against rose slugs on the foliage will knock them off and, in many cases, 

 save the bush from further injury by them. The rose chafer is a rather' 

 difficult insect to control, and arsenical poisons applied at double the usual 

 strength often fail to kill them before the damage is done. Frequent hand 

 picking of the beetles and dropping them into a vessel containing water 

 covered with a film of kerosene, or screening the plants with mosquito net- 

 ting, especially the latter, often affords the only means of preventing their 

 destructive work. — U. S. Dept. of Agri. 



