118 FRITZ BAHR'S COMMERCIAL FLORICULTURE 



What is as important as fumigating or spraying regularly is 

 keeping the houses clean. Benches were never intended to carry rub- 

 bish below them. They should be as clean underneath as they are 

 on top. I realize that, with the retail grower, it is often necessary 

 to use the space below for the storage of all sorts of things. Well, 

 that cannot be helped, and the smaller the establishment, the more 

 often it has to be practiced. But there is no good reason why 

 there shouldn't be, every so often, a thorough house cleaning, 

 especially of the corners. Keep things clean if you don't like bugs. 



Don't throw out cut-down Chrysanthemums and place potted 

 plants right on top of the soil in the benches because you are so 

 very busy. By so doing, you invite trouble. Clean out the soil 

 first, scrub the bench, whitewash it and then use it again. Make 

 up your mind that green fly and aphis are only the forerunners of 

 other, more serious troubles. Where these two are permitted to 

 eat off the family table, they invite others to come that soon eat 

 you out of house and home. Keep them away and you will, at 

 least to a large extent, keep the others away. For it shows you have 

 your eyes open and are ready to nip anything in the bud before it 

 has a chance to get the best of you. 



NOTES ON DISEASES OF PLANTS 



Keep on getting all the information possible on diseases to which 



plants are subject but spend more time trying to avoid them instead 



of waiting until you are obliged to fight them. At its best, a commercial 



greenhouse doesn't pay when turned into a hospital. 



T TSUALLY when softwooded plants, or such as you carry in the 

 ^ greenhouses only for a few months, get sick to such an extent 

 that they show bad effects of the illness in growth or flower, the best 

 remedy is to fire them out and forget about them. 



Such treatment may perhaps appear too radical, yet I am con- 

 vinced that in most cases it will be found far better than trying to 

 nurse the plants back into health. 



I have yet to hear of a case in which a man had a sickly lot of 

 Carnations in Midwinter no matter what the cause of the trouble 

 nursed them along, got the plants back into good shape and made 

 them pay by Spring. I don't say that it cannot be done, but I claim 

 that in most instances one is better off throwing out his sick plants 

 and filling his benches or beds with something else. 



PREVENTION MORE IMPORTANT THAN CURE 



In nine cases out of every ten, by the time a man finds out 

 just what is wrong with his Cyclamen, Chrysanthemums, Ciner- 

 arias, or Carnations, the plants really are worthless. Here, as with 

 human troubles, you can often do more in preventing them from 



