22 



The Florists^ Review 



January 20, 1921 



ODCN Lcrrci^y^ keadei^^ 



TRACTORS FOR FLORISTS. 



I saw in Tlic Kcx iow of .Taniiavv 13 

 an inquiry ro<i;;ir(liiij,r siiiall ti;u-t(irs for 

 florists, mirseryniun jiiul irardciicrs. 

 Haviiijj been a subscriber for ci^lit years 

 and liavinj: obtained mueh valuable in- 

 formation from others tlirough its eol- 

 unins, I will give my exjiericnce in this 

 matter. 



There are several practical small trac- 

 tors on the market. I have one with 

 which I worked six acres of land at 

 Dayton, O., and it was well ada])ted to 

 florists' needs. I had 3,500 vincas in 

 the field. The tractor was good for 

 my kind of cultivating, jilowing, haul- 

 ing and belt work. I sold my place last 

 August, but have since decided to go 

 back into the,business and have secured 

 twelve acres one mile oast of Dayton on 

 the Xenia i)iWe. I intend to start 10,000 

 vinca layers jn the field this spring and 

 will use the(^small tractor altogether. 

 The name of ifay tractor is the Utilitor, 

 manufactured "by the ]\ridwest Engine 

 Co., of Indianapolis. The complete out- 

 fit, freight included, cost me $460. Two 

 of my neighbors each had tractors, two 

 other makes, that gave good service, but 

 they did not seei'n to get Iho power T 

 did from mine. * 



T hope this long letter will not take 

 too much s])aco, but I will always do 

 what I can to help any florist learn of 

 easier and more economical ways of get- 

 ting his work done. C. L. Fies. 



ABOUT DELINQUENTS. 



I am just a grower of outdoor cut 

 flowers and bulbs down in the Ozarks of 

 old Missouri. Although we only have 

 two acres devoted to this ])ur]>ose., it 

 means work and lots of it. It is not the 

 work which I object to, for I love flow- 

 ers anil the ne\cr-c('asing charm of the 

 various seasons' blooms. The flowers 

 arc comiiensation enough f^r the work 

 they entail. Of course, we could not 

 .'ifford to grow them if they were not 

 financially pr(Jlfita1)le. 



I would have no coni]ilaiiit at all if 

 our customers wfiuld only remember the 

 gulden rule when it comes to jiayitig 

 liills. Most of them do. What makes 

 me mad is that florists who are given 

 the jirivilege of an open account fail 

 to pay, ignoring nil statements and re- 

 fpiests for money for months and even 

 years. 



.Sometimes it is almost enough to 

 make us growers wish there were some 

 truth in the little jingle that appeared 

 in a recent issue of the Satur<lay Eve- 

 iiing Post : 



}lo wlio sfIN wli.'it i^ii't lii-'ii 

 .Aliist p.i.v the priic nr ji« to iiri-mi. 



As imprisonment for debt is no longer 

 iu vogue, we must find another way to 

 force our custfuners to pay. It se.ems 

 fo mc that, for the betterment of the 

 (i-ade in general, it would be a good 

 jilan for the matter to be taken up at 

 the convention of the National Flower 

 • '•rowers' 'Association, at Washington. 

 .Tanuary 27. Surely some plan could 

 lie devised whereby florists who will not 



pay their bills would be blacklisted, just 

 as unreliable customers are in mer- 

 chants' credit associations. Tiiis one 

 evil is making the profits from some 

 flower growing so small that it is not 

 worth the bother, and in other cases 

 makes the jirices so high they are pro- 

 hibitive. Mrs. Annie O. Howard. 



begonias I have ever seen, but how 

 about the profit from them? Who re- 

 ceived the big pnd of -it? I was told 

 that these plants were sold direct to 

 the retailer for $3 each. The retailer 

 charged $10 to $25 for the same jjlants. 



In the case of carnations for Christ- 

 mas, they sold in the same city for $10 

 to .$12 per hundred wholesale, while 

 retailers charged $1 and $5 per dozen 

 for them. 



Being a grower myself, though not of 

 begonias, I think there are other 

 growers who will agree with me that 

 the margin is too great between the 

 buying price and the selling price. 

 Ealph H. Welsh. 



WHO GETS THE PROFIT? 



]\Iuch has been said in the papers 

 about the higli prices of cut flowers 

 and plants; and, in the writer's opinion, 

 in a great many cases there is just 

 cause for complaint along this line, 

 especially regarding the retail end of 

 it. A case in point may be taken from 

 the article, "Rig Cliristmas Begonias," 

 which appeared in The Review for .Janu- 

 ;iry G. 1 saw these plants in F. G. 

 Lewis' greenhouses at Christmas time, 

 anil am piM-sonally acfpiaintcd with him. 

 I agree with the rest of the florists who 

 have seen them, that they were the best 



PACKING FOR SHIPMENT. 



. We are sending you under separate 

 cover a few plants we received from a 

 prominent firm in the east. Note the 

 amount of real estate and then take a 

 good look at the plant in it and tell us 

 if we have a ground to kick. We paid 

 $143.62 express charges. The shipment 

 consisted of 2,000 palms, 2%-inch, 3-inch 

 and a few 4inch, and weighed 1,714 

 pounds. Could you not prepare an ar- 

 ticle and publish it in your paper, show- 

 ing that some judgment should be used 

 in making shipments nowadays. This 

 case surely is the limit. 



Spokane Greenhouses, Inc. 



ESW 



HAVE YOU TRIED IT? 



yrrtit7Ttit7TTif?Ttit7Tfit7Ttit7Ttit7TfirA-firA'tirA-tirAiit7TtirAii^^^^^ 



LYE AS AN INSECTICIDE. 



I wonder if there arc other plant 

 growers as green in the business and as 

 thankful for every hint and help as I 

 am. Being isolated iu northern Afin- 

 nesota, I shnuld be at a complete loss 

 many times were it not for The Review. 

 I hesitate to ask too many questions, 

 taking u[) your valuable time and spac(\ 

 and so I usually watch and find out in 

 time what I want to know. Xow. as I 

 have stumbled on something whicli T 

 think might be of benefit to others, I 

 tlK.ught I would write and give you 

 the information. 



I have no way to sterilize soil and 

 as a consequence have always had some 

 insects to contend with. This year I 

 carried over an especially prcmiising 

 bench of sniilax and ferns, giving them 

 a heavy top-dressing of old cow and 

 sheep manure. I knew there were angle- 

 worms a-]ilenty, but .about six weeks 

 ago I began to find other inhabitants. 

 There were wood lice, brown centipedes, 

 which look as though they might bo 

 wood lice in the larva stage, white wire- 

 worms and a tiny gray-white fly, almost 

 invisible to the naked eye. 



.\s I cmnot change soils in the dead 

 of winter and as there were hosts of all 

 of the insects, I began to wonder what 

 could 1)C done. I hai)pened to think of 

 a solution an old gardener had told mc 

 for use against the radish and onion 

 maggot, which I tried with some suc- 

 cess outdoors against cutworms. 



r dissolved a 12-ounce can of concen- 

 trated lyi' in a small anuMuit of water, 

 diluting it afterwards to make twenty 

 gallons. With this solution I worked 

 cautiously. At first I set pots of earth. 



or plants, and bits of board all over the 

 unoccujiied surfai'e of the bench, and 

 left them overnight. The next morning 

 I lifted each and carefully poured on 

 the assembled hordes below a few 

 spoonfuls of the solution. I then re- 

 placed the cover and the next morning 

 T went over the ground again, finding 

 hundreds of dead vermin and a few 

 ;ilive, but not vigorous. After a sec- 

 ond and third dose .all were dead. As 

 no harm resulted to the plants, I extend- 

 ed the experiment. 



Some pots had angleworms in them 

 and some plants, both in jiots and 

 benches, were unthrifty, giving signs 

 of sour soil or root trouble of some 

 kind. I set aside a number of these 

 pots and watered them well with the 

 lye solution. I also soaked a portion 

 of the bench thoroughly with it. I took 

 a number of healthy plants and gave 

 them the same treatment. In no case 

 has a plant shown the slightest injury 

 from the treatment so far, while some 

 of the sickly ones seem to be improving, 

 although it is too soon to be sure of 

 that. But it is certain that no harm has 

 come from the use of the mixture, .and 

 it is certain that the worms are con- 

 quered. 



Feeling that this is a solution which 

 should be worked out carefully, scien- 

 tifically experimented upon ami put be- 

 fore the trade autluu-itat ively, I am 

 passing it on so that jierhaps some good, 

 scientific, progressive grower will find 

 out what there is in it and how to ap- 

 ply it. Meanwhile I shall keep a bot- 

 tle of dissolved lye on the shelf and be 

 ready to soak any worm, centipede or 

 insect that dares show its head. 



Florence Burlingame. 



