JOS 



THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



Mix the acid and water in 1-gallon 

 butter jars, place as many jars as you 

 need along on the paths of house, as 

 equally divided as you can, and when 

 all are in place walk along and drop 

 the little parcel of cyanide into each 

 jar; you can take your time. This is 

 sure death to the little white fly so 

 troublesome of late, and also to the 

 aphis peculiar to the violet. Don t at 

 tempt to double up in quantity to save 

 labor. 



As compared with tobacco smoke it 

 is quite expensive and some trouble to 

 apply, but if it saves a crop of violets 

 from the ravages of that minute fly 

 that punctures the leaf, laying an egg 

 which destroys the tissue of the leaf 

 and produces what we call curl leaf, 

 it is certainly worth ten times the cost 

 and labor, it is applied principally to 

 destroy the almost invisible insects so 

 injurious to violets, but while doing that 

 it utterly destroys greenfly, red spider, 

 centipedes and all else that breathes. 

 It leaves no objectionable odor. 



Have the jar in which you generate 

 the gas four times as large as the 

 mixture of water and acid, and when 

 purchasing the cyanide of potash have 

 each package of two and one-half 

 ounces well wrapped in double paper. 



Sulphur. 



Sulphur in different forms is the great 

 antidote for fungus, and our chief rose 

 enemy, the mildew, is a fungus. The 

 flour of sulphur is often dusted on 

 the plants. This is perhaps the least 

 useful method, and sulphur should never 

 be allowed to reach the soil. It is 

 sometimes sprinkled on the pipes, and 

 sometimes placed in shallow pans and 

 placed where the rays of the sun will 

 strike it, as when at a high temperature 

 it gives off its fumes that destroy the 

 spores of the fungus. 



I think it is most beneficial, most 

 easily applied, and the least harmful 

 to the plants when it is mixed with 

 linseed oil and painted on the pipes. 

 Don t overdo it. Where there are eight 

 or ten hot-water pipes, or twenty small 

 steam pipes, paint the upper surface 

 of one pipe; that will be sufficient. We 

 think the oil does some good with the 

 sulphur. This is an excellent preventive 

 of mildew. 



Sulphur is sometimes burned on hot 

 bricks or an old shovel made red hot. 

 I have done it and it is of course a 

 very effective way of applying the 

 deadly fumes, but you must be very 

 careful and directly the odor of sul 

 phur is plainly noted you must move 

 on a few yards. When the carnation 

 rust was at its worst a few years ago 

 we burned a great deal of sulphur in 

 the houses when they were entirely 

 empty in the month of August. We 

 made it strong enough to kill a Kil 

 kenny cat and trust it killed all the 

 spores and germs of the rust and other 

 fungous diseases. 



Sulphide of potassium, known as 

 liver of sulphur, is a good preventive 

 and possibly a cure for mildew. I have 

 used it dissolved in water and then 



mixed with clay till it was the con 

 sistency of molasses, and on the pipes 

 put a dab of the paint here and there, 

 say every three feet. It is stronger 

 than the common sulphur. Or the roses 

 can be syringed with it; one pound in 

 fifty gallons of water. 



Tobacco. 



What could we do in the absence of 

 this wonderful weed? As a luxury it 

 is possibly dispensable, and so are tea 

 and coffee, but as an insecticide it is 

 a great essential. Till we find some 

 thing better it is the great cure-all of 

 many a florist s establishment. Where 

 fumigation is not possible or permissible, 

 as in conservatories attached to dwell 

 ing houses, it is used as dust or in 

 the liquid form, but &quot;smoking,&quot; as 

 the gardener calls it, is the way it is 

 universally applied ; most effective and 

 cheapest. 



Most florists in or near a large town 

 get their stems from the cigarmaker, 

 and pay for them with a plant occa 

 sionally sent to Mrs. Havana Filler. 

 If you have to purchase the stems they 

 cost little. Every florist knows his own 

 way of fumigating. I for one don t 

 believe in placing it on the floor to 

 burn itself out. I prefer it in an iron, 

 or galvanized iron, vessel that can be 

 moved along. If you can t stand the 

 smoke, learn to; go to a New York 

 Florists Club s &quot;smoker,&quot; and after 

 that you will survive not only tobacco 

 smoke but the fumes of sulphur. To 

 bacco stems get very dry in our sheds 

 and are apt to flare if not moistened. 

 The stems should be shaken out a few 

 hours before you intend to smoke and 

 sprinkled. They will then be moist, 

 without being wet. 



How thick or dense tobacco smoke 

 should be is a matter of experience. It 

 is experience that allows us to endure 

 it when it is so thick you can scarcely 

 see your hand before you, and would 

 quickly suffocate the tenderfoot. Light 

 ly and often is the motto always to 

 follow. This has been often preached 

 before, yet how true and wise it is. 

 Don t wait to see three generations of 

 greenfly sucking the life blood out of 

 your plants, but have a day to smoke 

 and remember that day, or rather night, 

 to keep it smoky. 



There are a few plants that are easily 

 injured by tobacco smoke, and plants 

 having flowers with thin single petals 

 should not be exposed to fumigation 

 when in flower. Those plants that are 

 hurt by tobacco smoke will be noted 

 in their respective cultural directions. 



I never noticed that it was any in 

 jury to carnations except that it de 

 stroyed their odor and left in its place 

 that of stale tobacco, which will last 

 on the flowers for twenty-four hours. 

 There is a difference of opinion about 

 its effect on roses that are producing 

 buds. Some large growers say they 

 fumigate and see no harm, but the ma 

 jority of good rose growers keep down 

 the aphis by other methods, and the 

 writer sides with the latter. I have 

 on many occasions seen the petals of 

 our best tea roses, Bride and Brides 



maid, malformed and discolored from 

 no cause but tobacco smoke. 



While burning tobacco stems will be 

 the method used by many for years to 

 come, we think that burning the tobacco 

 dust is a great improvement. It may 

 cost a trifle more than the stems, but 

 it is not unpleasant to apply and unless 

 used to excess does no harm to the 

 roses. Eastern growers in the neighbor 

 hood .of New York we have noticed 

 make small conical heaps of the dust 

 on the floor of the houses, and set fire 

 to the apex of the piles and let it 

 smoulder away till it is burnt out. 



A great improvement over this we 

 think is burning the dust in cake dishes 

 and for want of a better name, we will 

 call it the cake dish method. Get a 

 number of these tin dishes, usually they 

 are about ten inches long, six or seven 

 inches wide, with an edge about one 

 and three-quarter inches deep. Cut out 

 the bottom across one end and two 

 sides within three-quarters of an inch 

 of the sides, fold back the bottom that 

 has been cut and that answers as a leg 

 or support to raise one end of the dish 

 off the floor three or four inches. In 

 place of the tin bottom which you have 

 removed cut out some pieces of wire 

 mosquito netting that will just lie in 

 the bottom of the dish, spread a quart 

 of the dust on this netting, and at the 

 lower end drop a few drops of kero 

 sene and put a match to the tobacco 

 dust. 



The few drops of kerosene will give 

 it a good start, and one end of this 

 dish being three or four inches higher 

 than the other, there is always a good 

 draught and every particle of dust 

 burns, but not quickly; it smoulders for 

 two hours. If you put the tins on the 

 ground beneath a bench or anywhere 

 but a wooden path you can light the 

 tins and go home. 



Now this has taken some time to ex 

 plain and you may think it fussy, yet 

 it is not in the least, If you will pick 

 up the dishes next morning and keep 

 them in the dry till future use, they 

 will last three or four years. We used 

 four dishes in a house 20x150. The great 

 advantage of this plan over burning 

 stems is that for two or three hours 

 the atmosphere is charged with nicotine, 

 at no time is there a dense, hot smoke 

 which hurts the plants, but the aphis 

 and spider get a long treat of nicotine. 

 If you will adopt this plan you will 

 never go back to the burning stems. 

 You should not depend on your local 

 cigar maker for dust, but get the 

 genuine article from a specialist. 



Eose growers who use steam have tin 

 vessels which hold one or two bushels 

 of tobacco stems, which are chopped 

 up as a hay cutter would cut them. 

 Into the bottom of this tin vessel runs 

 a i^ -inch steam pipe. You can have 

 as many of them as your house requires. 

 When the steam is turned on a dense 

 vapor fills the house, which of course 

 contains nicotine. This is an effectual 

 way of killing the fly, but is objected 

 to by some as producing a soft growth 

 on the roses, and vaporizing the ex 

 tracts of tobacco is preferred by many. 



