Sbptember 18, 1913. 



The Florists^ Review 



13 



bed should he covered for twelve hours 

 or more with burlap or oil cloth. Cut- 

 tings should not be placed in the sand 

 until the formaldehyde has evaporated. 

 Evaporation may be facilitated by fre- 

 ([uent stirring. 



Great care should be exercised in 

 lulling out any affected plants, discard- 

 ing those showing lesions on the stem, 

 black point or black bands on the 

 roots. 



Other Means of Disinfection. 



The possibility of spreading infec- 

 tion at the time of making the cuttings 

 and when sorting out diseased plants is 

 great. There should be some method 

 of protecting healthy cuttings or plants 

 by dipping them in a fungicide. The 

 difficulties experienced by the writer in 

 making such treatments, however, lay 

 in the fact that violets, particularly 

 the cuttings, are extremely sensitive 

 to chemicals. Bordeaux mixture and 

 formaldehyde at various strengths were 

 tried, but the number of plants killed 

 was too great to warrant practical ap- 

 plication of the method. Further tests 

 are contemplated. 



A thorough disinfection of all soil in 

 the houses should then be effected. The 

 grower attempts to do this in a prac- 

 tical way by changing his soil from year 

 to year. This is a laborious and often 

 a costly process, but yet practically 

 necessary on account of disease. Many 

 growers would like to use their soil at 

 least two years if it were not for the 

 occurrence of this disease. Soil is dis- 

 infected easily with steam, but most 

 violet houses are heated with hot water, 

 so that steam sterilization is impracti- 

 cable. With this in mind the writer 

 has undertaken to disinfect the soil in 

 violet houses by means of the formalde- 

 hyde treatment. Just how satisfactory 

 this treatment will be remains yet to 

 be seen. Theoretically it should prove 

 satisfactory, but quite often theory does 

 not work out in practice. 



Acid and Alkaline Fertilizers. 



Fortunately, not many violet grow- 

 ers have begun the use of lime. A;i 

 alkaline soil is shown definitely by 

 Briggs to favor the development of 

 thielavia, and its extensive use in the 

 violet house would doubtless tend to 

 increase the amount of disease. Some 

 growers use wood ashes as a fertilizer 

 to a certain extent and for that reason 

 a test plat treated with wood ashes was 

 included in the following experiment: 



An experiment was designed to test 

 the effect of acid and alkaline fertilizers 

 on the amount of disease developing in 

 affected plants. The experiment is im- 

 perfect and incomplete in certain re- 

 spects, but a number of interesting 

 points developed during the progress of 

 the experiment which are worthy of 

 'ocord. The work is to be repeated an- 

 other year, taking advantage of the ex- 

 perience of the present season. 



Soil in part of a greenhouse bench 

 ^vas mixed thoroughly and sterilized by 

 fneans of formaldehyde. The area was 

 livided into eight equal parts, each sep- 

 'fated from its neighbor by a wooden 

 I firtition. Two plats were treated with 

 •ir-slaked lime, .09 pounds per square 

 ''>ot, or two tons per acre; two others 

 '■eeived acid phosphate in the same 

 I'antity; the next two received wood 

 ■'"hes in the same amount; while two 

 "'hers received well-rotted steamed 

 "manure, .45 pounds per square foot, or 

 '» tons per acre. 



[To be continued.] 



Two diseased violet plants, grown from cuttings infected with the thielavia disease, or 

 root rot. The photograph was made November 12, 1912. Note the dwarfed foliage, the 

 repoated efforts of the plants to live by the development of new roots from above the point 

 of disease and the numerous infections on the new roots. 



BUSINESS EMBABBASSMENTS. 



Ijouisville, Ky. — Nanz & Neuner, 

 now in bankruptcy, have made an 

 offer for a composition settlement of 

 forty per cent. The liabilities are esti- 

 mated at $lfi,000 and the assets at 

 the nominal figure of $10,000. A defi- 

 nite amount for the latter cannot be 

 given on account of the character of 

 the property. The firm's offer will be 

 referred to the creditors by R. C. Kin- 

 kead, referee in bankruptcy. 



Augusta, Qa. — A hearing has been 

 called in the district court hero to 

 show cause why the ten per cent com- 

 position offered by the Alexander Seed 

 Co., which has been accepted by a ma- 

 jority of the creditors, should not be 

 confirmed. 



Bloomington, HI. — John Y. Chisholm 

 has been appointed receiver for the 

 Phoenix Nursery Co. Full details will 

 be found in the Nursery Department of 

 this issue. 



Glen View, 111. — A petition in bank- 

 ruptcy was filed September 13 against 

 the American Horticultural Co., in the 

 United States District court at Chicago, 

 asking that a receiver be appointed to 

 ti.ke charge of the affairs of the coni- 

 panv for the benefit of its creditors. 

 The creditors filing the petition were 

 William Melzer, Rugan Bros., Des 

 Plaines Lumber Co. and the Onarga 

 Nursery. The total claims of these 

 creditors were listed as $500. In their 

 petition the creditors alleged that an 

 act of bankruptcy had been committed 

 by the payment of certain sums to 

 creditors while insolvent: $100 to 

 George Reinberg, $50 to J. W. Butter, 

 $50 to A, L. Randall Co., and $80 to 

 Aldis & Co. According to the petition, 

 the American Horticultural Co. has 

 twenty-one acres at Glen View planted 

 with trees, shrubs and various kinds of 

 nursery stock, and another twenty acres 

 at Wheeling, W. Va. It is alleged that 

 McHutchison & Co., of New York, re- 

 cently secured an attachment against 

 the Wheeling property to the extent of 

 $3,700. The oflScers of the American 

 Horticultural Co. are listed in the peti- 



tion as follows: President, Louis Cole; 

 vice-president, H, T. Meinerman; secre- 

 tary and treasurer, Charles Cole. Edwin 

 C. Day was appointed as receiver by 

 the court. 



FBEESIAS. 



The earliest batch of freesias will 

 now be several inches high and, in 

 order to get them in flower as early as 

 I)ossible, Christmas and its fancy prices 

 being the objective of nearly all grow- 

 ers, they should now be moved into a 

 light, sunny house where a winter mini- 

 mum of 52 to 55 degrees is maintained. 

 It is often possible to use shelves for 

 ,the culture of these plants, giving them 

 saucers, where the plants are in pans, 

 to prevent drying out later in the 

 season. 



The second batch should also now 

 be well above ground, and another 

 planting should be made. There are 

 no more popular and useful bulbs than 

 freesias for the average retailing flo- 

 rist, and no mistake can bo made in 

 planting them in quantity. 



CALLAS. 



Tubers of callas, which were dried 

 off, repotted and stood outdoors, are 

 now making rapid growth. While they 

 seem to luxuriate outdoors, they will 

 flower quite a little earlier if placed 

 under glass now. Any greenhouse with 

 good light will do for some time ahead, 

 but later in the season they should 

 have a night temperature of 55 to 60 

 degrees. The Godfrey is the calla par 

 excellence for the florist who retails his 

 output. It grows less vigorously than 

 the ordinary C. ^thiopica, but pro- 

 duces several times as many flowers, 

 nearly as large and much purer in 

 color. Quite a few growers labor under 

 the delusion that the Godfrey is simply 

 the old Little Gem rechristened. ^a 

 a matter of fact there is no resemblance 

 at all between the two, as everyone 

 can attest who has grown the two 

 varieties. 



Kankakee, HI. — Gus Raasch has built 

 an addition, 22x100 feet, to his green- 

 houses. It is to be used for pot plants. 



