20 



The Florists^ Review 



Jandabt 16, 1920. 



under the quarantine to protect such 

 movement." 



A Coincidence? 



Perhaps it is only a chance coinci- 

 dence that the Japanese beetle plays so 

 important a role. No one has grounds 

 for concluding aught else. The bug, 

 however, has brought into opposition 

 once more one of the leaders of our in- 

 dustry and the group of government 

 officials which seven and a half months 

 ago deprived the horticultural trades 

 of this country of some of their most 

 important sources of supply. 



The outcome of the hearing to 

 be held January 27 at the office of the 

 Federal Horticultural Board, in Wash- 

 ington, is not one to be predicted. It 



will be noted with intense interest by 

 the trade, as providing a test of whether 

 the board's power in horticultural mat- 

 ters is without limit over the trade. 



The notice of the board calling the 

 hearing reads as follows: 



The Secretary of Agriculture hats information 

 that a dangerous insect infestation, namely, the 

 Japanese beetle (Poplllia Japonica Newm.), not 

 heretofore widely prevalent or distributed within 

 and throughout the United States, exists in the 

 following townships and boroughs in the state 

 of New Jersey, to- wit: The townships of Del- 

 ran, Chester, Cinnaminson, J'nlni.vru, Mount Lau- 

 rel and Riverside and the borough of Kiverton in 

 Burlington county, and the townships of I'en- 

 snulten and Delaware and the borough of Mer- 

 chantville in Camden county. 



It appears that the territory above described 

 should be quarantined in accordance with sec- 

 tion 8 of the Plant Quarantine Act of August 

 20, 1912 (37 Stat., 315), as amended by Act of 

 Congress approved March 4, 1917 (39 Stat., 1134, 

 11C5), and that the movement from said terri- 

 tory into other states, territories and districts 



of marketable perishable food crops of all kinds,. 

 Including green corn, tomatoes, beans, peas, 

 cantaloupes, watermelons, grapes, raspberries, 

 blackberries, cherries, peaches, apples and all 

 other fruits, vegetables and fresh food products 

 other than canned, dried or preserved products; 

 also of hay, forage and grain crops of all kinds, 

 and of nursery and greenhouse products, includ- 

 ing trees, shrubs, plants of all kinds, bulbs and 

 flowers, should be restricted or prohibited. 



Notice is therefore hereby given that a public 

 hearing will be held at the Department of Agri- 

 culture, Washington, D. C, Room 11, Federal 

 Horticultural Board, at 10 a. m., January 27, 

 1920, In order that any person Interested in the 

 proposed quarantine may appear and be heard, 

 either in person or by attorney. 



The New Jersey state department of agricul- 

 ture will cooperate in the enforcement of the 

 proposed quarantine so far as the intrastate 

 movement of nursery stock, greenhouse plants, 

 bulbs, etc., is concerned. 



The quarantine now in force on account of the 

 Japanese beetle covers only the townships of 

 Delran, Chester and Cinnaminson, county of 

 Burlington, N. J., and restricts only the move- 

 ment of green corn, commonly called sweet or 

 sugar corn. 



VACUUM-CLEAN YOUR MUMS 



s?ii^rysvii^r/stir/SYiri«\irr8virrsvir7Svir7^ 



'A WINDY STORY." 



Blows 111 for Insecticides. 



This may be termed a "windy 

 story," though it has the merit of be- 

 ing absolutely true and opens up an ex- 

 tensive vista for future operations along 

 similar lines. 



Some years ago I wrote how James 

 Fraser, superintendent for O. H. Kahn, 

 by using powerful eleetric lights all 

 night brought in William Turner mums 

 a week or so ahead of the usual time, 

 in order to win a special prize offered 

 at the shows. When Mr. Fraser used 

 the lights to bring in the Turners, he 

 was living in Morristown, N. J., but 

 since that time he has moved to the 

 sand dunes of Long Island, and pos- 

 sibly the ocean breezes gave him an 

 idea. In any case, his head seems to 

 have been still working. Owing to the 

 sunless weather which we all enjoyed 

 (!) on the eastern seaboard during the 

 months of September and October, Mr. 

 Fraser 's exhibition buds, as they de- 

 veloped, showed signs of being infested 

 with red spider, which was by no means 

 an unusual condition among all exhibi- 

 tion growers this season, when they 

 could do comparatively little spraying. 



Home-Made Idea. 



Mr. Fraser, watching the vacuum 

 cleaner one day in his home and noting 

 the omnivorous way in which the cleaner 

 took up every bit of dust, etc., was 

 suddenly smitten with an idea. If the 

 cleaner would suck in dust from car- 

 pets, pictures and walls, why would it 

 not suck the red spider and thrips from 

 the buds of the mums? To think, with 

 Mr. Fraser, was to act, and in a few 

 minutes there was a terrific noise issu- 

 ing from the greenhouses, which brought 

 the local fire department on the run, as 

 someone thought the greenhouse boilers 

 had exploded and turned in an alarm. 

 When peace was restored it was found 

 that the vacuum cleaner was doing 

 phonomonal work among the chrysanthe- 

 mum buds and making a perfectly clean 

 job of it, removing aphis, red spider, 

 thrips and every other insect that was 

 anywhere in the radius of the SU)(^0|1. 

 So clean a job did it make, in (fact, 

 that Mr. Fraser 's flowers easily ^iJli^- 



first prizes in many of the shows last 

 fall. 



Mr. Fraser does not desire the name 

 of any vacuum cleaner mentioned, since 

 some growers might think that he is an 

 agent for that particular brand of 

 cleaner, but he now reports that he has 

 discontinued buying insecticides and is 

 working on his own' idea of a suitable 

 mouthpiece for the vacuum cleaner. 

 He states he can go over a large house 

 in less than half an hour and rid it en- 

 tirely of green fly, thrips, spider, etc., 

 which all go into the cleaner and are 

 later transported to the chicken-run. 



Promising Prospect. 



Does this not open up wonderful pos- 

 sibilities for the future florist? 



Travelers in Europe, who have been 

 treated to an English or French shave 

 at a penny a head and then came home 

 to receive what an up-to-date American 

 barber calls "the works," know there 

 is a tremendous difference between the 

 European shave and the finished Ameri- 

 can tonsorial operation. 



Following this theory, how much more 

 gentlemanly a procedure is it to dispose 

 of the bugs thus painlessly via vacuum 

 rather than strangle them with insec- 

 ticides or steal upon them in a barbar- 

 ous manner with the thumb and fore- 

 finger! 



We may expect to hear in the distant 

 future, "The Brown Co. is distributing 

 the most humane vacuum apparatus for 

 disposing of all kinds of bugs in green- 

 houses," and "Jones & Co. are offering 

 pink and blue sets for women, that will 

 painlessly rid their plants of all insects 

 that infest them." 



Why did not some of our geniuses 

 whose brows were wrinkled with care 

 trying to think out ways of winning 

 the war, think up a scheme of this kind 

 to rid the boys of cooties, when they 

 were in the trenches? 



Other Uses. 



W^hen the grasshoppers are starting to 

 clean up the alfalfa fields in the 

 "boundless west," why not use an army 

 of vacuum cleaners, when the pests first 

 start their ravages, and nip their in- 

 vasion in the bud? 



. When the weary householder in the 

 mos(iuito-inf ested district before retir- 



ing to his couch gives the room the 

 "once-over" with a vacuum cleaner, 

 will not the mosquito cease to trouble 

 him and the citizen get his well-earned 

 rest? With what blissful satisfaction 

 can the bald-headed man go to sleep 

 after placing the vacuum-cleaner so it 

 will keep his head clear of flies and also 

 keep a current of air passing through 

 his vanishing locks! The gentle hum of 

 the machine would woo him to sleep. 

 In fact, the possibilities from this 

 thought of Mr. Fraser 's are absolutely 

 illimitable. Mr. Fraser passes it on to 

 posterity without a thought of reward. 



All one needs, then, in the future is a 

 vacuum cleaner, large or small size, ac- 

 cording to the ambitions of the user, 

 and electric current and a laudable de- 

 sire to do his bit toward ridding the 

 world of "undesirables." 



The millennium is not as yet with us, 

 but we are marching on, brothers, we 

 are marching on. Chas. H. Totty. 



MILLEPEDES ON CYCLAMENS. 



We are sending three cyclamen plants 

 and should like to know what to do for 

 them. We have 500 plants like these. 

 We never before had any trouble in 

 growing them. W. & T. C— N. Y. 



The trouble with your cyclamen 

 plants is being caused by millepedes, or, 

 as they are commonly known, thousand- 

 legged worms. I cut up the crowns of 

 the plants sent and in each one found 

 two or three of the millepedes. These 

 pests are decidedly destructive and 

 hard to get rid of. They work them- 

 selves down into the crowns of the 

 plants among the young growths and 

 the only way to reach them is by fumes 

 of some kind. 



The best means that I have found to 

 get rid of them is by evaporation of 

 nicotine preparations from the steam 

 pipe beneath the bench. I use Nico- 

 fume for the purpose, painting one of 

 the steam pipes, when cold, with the 

 liquid, then turning on the steam. This 

 is done late in the day and is repeated 

 two or three days in succession, accord- 

 ing to how numerous the worms are. 

 The worms cannot stand much of these 

 fumes and will come out of the plants 

 and die on the surface of the soil. 



M. P. 



