IS 



The Rorists' Review 



Decbmbkr 28, 1916. 



MISBBANDINQ BILL CHANGED? 



To Protect This Trade. 



The Committee on Interstate and For- 

 eign Commerce of the House of Repre- 

 sentatives, it is expected, immediately 

 following the reconvening of Congress 

 at the conclusion of the Christmas re- 

 cess, will take action upon the proposal 

 of Representative Barkley, of Ken- 

 tucky, to amend his so-called misbrand- 

 ing bill so as to exempt seeds, green- 

 house and hardy herbaceous plants and 

 nursery stock from its provisions. 



The Barkley bill, which, as previously 

 noted in the columns of The Review, 

 was favorably reported in the House of 

 Representatives by the commerce com- 

 mittee, seeks to prohibit the manufac- 

 ture, sale, or transportation in interstate 

 commerce of misbranded articles and 

 provides a fine of not exceeding $500 

 for the first offense and a fine of $1,000, 

 imprisonment for not more than one 

 year, or both the fine and imprisonment, 

 for the second and all succeeding 

 offenses, for violations of the proposed 

 law. 



Indistinguishable Varieties. 



Members of the florist, seed and nurs- 

 ery trades, realizing the impossibility 

 of strict compliance with the provisions 

 of this law, have petitioned Congress 

 to act slowly in the matter and to con- 

 sider the appropriateness of an amend- 

 ment to the bill as it now reads so as 

 to exempt these commodities. It was 

 pointed out that the similar appearance 

 of many different kinds of seeds, green- 

 house and hardy herbaceous plants and 

 seedling trees would prevent anyone 

 from saying with absolute certainty 

 what varieties they are. Under such 

 circumstances, it is contended, if such 

 merchandise be improperly labeled and 

 so shipped in interstate commerce the 

 violation of the law presumably would 

 be entirely unintentional. 



Unreasonable and Unfair. 



As the measure now reads, florists, 

 seedsmen and nurserymen declare, if 

 enacted into law, it will work a great 

 hardship upon the trade. It is per- 

 fectly satisfactory to the trade so far 

 as its provisions apply to intentional 



mislabeling or the improper labeling 

 of distinguishable articles. But when 

 it comes to its application to seeds, 

 plants, nursery stock of certain kinds, 

 and other commodities of a nature which 

 would make identification impossible 

 until some time after sal., the law 

 would bo both unreasonable and unfair 

 to this trade. 



The Proposed Amendment. 



A number of florists, seedsmen and 

 nurserymen have conferred with Mr. 

 Barkley, who is the author of the bill, 

 and he has agreed to present an amend- 

 ment to the House Committee on Inter- 

 state and Foreign Commerce early in 

 January, which will read substantially 

 as follows: "That seeds, plants, roots, 

 bulbs or nursery stock indistinguishable 

 by their appearance, and unintentionally 

 mislabeled because of such indistinguish- 

 ability, shall not be deemed misbranded 

 within the meaning of this Act. ' ' 



In an interview with the Washington 

 correspondent of The Review, Mr. Bark- 

 ley stated that it was not his desire 

 to work a hardship on any interests 

 and he had gladly assented to the de- 

 sires of those interested in this par- 

 ticular subject, the merits of their con- 

 tentions being apparent. He has sent 

 the amendment proposed by him to the 

 Department of Agriculture with a re- 

 quest for an expression of opinion from 

 its officials. C. L. L. 



MUMS COME BLIND. 



I grew about 2,000 pompons outdoors 

 last summer and benched them about 

 October 1, when some of the early va- 

 rieties were showing buds. The plants 

 took root nicely and progressed satis- 

 factorily, but about three-quarters of 

 them came blind and some had mildew. 

 Can you give me any reason why the 

 pompons came blind; also, why my Bon- 

 naffon and White Bonnaffon mums de- 

 veloped the same condition? Would you 

 advise me to save stock from these plants, 

 or discard them and purchase new ones? 

 The pompons I grow sell well in this 

 market, but I do not know the varieties. 

 Please give the names of six or eight 

 double varieties, covering white, pink, 

 yellow and bronze. The singles do not 

 sell well. W. S. J.— N. J. 



I am unable to say what caused your 

 plants to come blind. A certain propor- 

 tion of them always will fail when they 

 are lifted as late as October, but I never 

 before heard of so many as three-fourths 

 of a batch coming blind. Possibly you 

 planted them so closely that they did 

 not get light and air enough to finish 

 their growth properly. As to this, you 

 are the best judge. When plants hav^ 

 been stung by the chinch bug late in 



the season they not infrequently will 

 come blind. This may be responsible 

 for the trouble with the pompons and 

 the Bonnaffons. 



Mildew will appear if the plants are 

 indiscriminately aired, or watered too 

 late in the afternoon, so that they stand 

 wet all night. It would be well, if it is 

 possible to do so, to weed out the plants 

 that run blind, since it is a well known 

 principle that "like begets like." If 

 you continue to propagate from your 

 blind stock of Bonnaffons every year, 

 it is a logical assumption that the quan- 

 tity of blind shoots will increase rather 

 than decrease, though cuttings taken 

 from plants that flower satisfactorily 

 should prove all right. 



A selection of good market varieties 

 in the pompon section would be about 

 as follows: White, White Doty, Queen 

 of the Whites and Myers' Perfection; 

 pink, Lillian Doty, Donald and Western 

 Beauty; yellow. Golden Climax, Quinola 

 and Zenobia; bronze, Inez. 



Chas. H. Totty. 



INCURVED COMMERCIAL MUMS. 



Please give a list of mums that are 

 most suitable for commercial use and 

 not too difficiilt of culture. I prefer 

 incurved varieties. Mention two or 



three of each of the colors, white, pink 

 and yellow. This season I have grown 

 Major Bonnaffon, Chieftain, Pacific 

 Supreme, Glory of Pacific and Seidewitz. 

 I did not like Glory of Pacific, but Bon- 

 naffon, Chieftain and Seidewitz did' well. 

 As a rule, I want easy growers and of 

 course I want good flowers, but I do not 

 want fancy varieties. It is not neces- 

 sary that all of them shall be incurved, 

 but the incurved sorts seem to be the 

 best. E. B.— Pa. 



As a selection of three incurved, good 

 commercial varieties in each of the three 

 colors mentioned, aside from those that 

 E. B. already is growing, I would sug- 

 gest the following: 



In white, Alice Day, White Chief- 

 tain and Wm, Turner are good. To these 

 could be added with profit, perhaps, the 

 variety Alice Salomon, Alice Day has 

 proved itself to be one of the best 

 second-early whites in cultivation. 

 White Chieftain also made a name for 

 itself this year and Wm. Turner is so 

 well known that it would only take up 

 time and space to discuss it further. 



In pink, I would suggest Unaka, 

 Nerissa and Patty. Unaka has merit 

 in being the earliest good pink we have. 

 Nerissa is an excellent, long-keeping. 



