18 



The Florists' lUvkw 



Mat 38. 1914. 



IN THE CABNATION FIELD 



With Cultivator and Hoe. 



The young carnation plants in the 

 field will demand your attention right 

 along now in one way or another. In 

 fact, you will find that every moment 

 spent in the field will be profitably 

 spent. Cultivating should be done with 

 regularity. If it rains, get the culti- 

 vators out as soon afterward as the 

 ground is in condition to work. During 

 prolonged spells of drought, make it a 

 rule to run through with the cultivators 

 at least once each week. Do not re- 

 sort to watering in the field except as 

 a last resource; cultivating yvill do 

 more .good, as a rule. Once you begin 

 to water, you must keep it up and 

 there is great danger of throwing the 

 plants into a quick, rank growth, which 

 will render transplanting to the benches 

 difficult. What you want is a well- 

 matured growth, ; which can be best se- 

 cured with a moderate amount of water. 



The cultivators will keep down the 

 weeds pretty well between the rows,' 

 but you will have to go through the 

 field with the hoe a few times to get 

 out the weeds from between the plants, 

 and to lo6sen the soil where the culti- 

 vators will not reach. Do not wait 

 until the field looks green with weeds 

 before you do this, but catch them 

 while they are small; if it can be done 

 during a dry spell, all the better. 



Topping and Other Attentions. 



Another thing that will demand close 

 attention from now on is the topping. 

 The plants that were topped before 

 planting out was begun will now be 

 pushing up shoots and these must be 

 kept headed back, or much energy will" 

 be lost, and with the early planting 

 that is practiced these days we cannot 

 afford to be neglectful in this way. 

 For the second topping, three joints 

 are enough with most varieties. If 

 more are left, the plants are likely to 

 grow straggly instead of making com- 

 pact, bushy plants that will stand up- 

 right and can be handled without 

 breaking apart at planting time. To 

 me there is nothing more exasperating 

 that a lot of loose-grown, straggly 

 plants, that flop all around when being 

 planted in the bench. They are a 

 source of worry all through the season. 



When going through the field with 

 cultivator or hoe, notice the plants and 

 see that they stand upright, so that 

 they will make symmetrical growth. I 

 have seen careless workmen try to use 

 the hoe in getting out weeds close to 

 the plants, instead of stooping to pull 

 such weeds by hand. In cutting out a 

 weed the soil is pulled away from one 

 side of the plant and in many cases is 

 not even replaced, and the plant is thus 

 allowed to fall over during the first 

 hard rain. No good workman would 

 be guilty of such work, but it is men- 

 tioned here because the hoeing is fre- 



quently done by inexperienced help and 

 they must be looked after closely. 



Compost for the Benches. 



If you piled up the soil you expect to 

 use in your benches, you have perhaps 

 turned it before this. If you have not, 

 be sure to do so just as soon as you 

 can. Chop it down and thoroughly mix 

 the manure with the soil when turning 

 it. No composted soil should be al- 

 lowed to lie through a whole year with- 

 out being turned at least once; twice 

 would be better. If it is piled less 

 than a year before it is to be used, it 

 should, be turned at least once: Letting 

 the air into it puts it into so much 

 better condition for planting that the 

 expense is returned many fold. Be sure 

 you do not handle it when too wet. 



The writer was much interested in 

 the article entitled "Carnations in the 

 South," written by F. P. Adams and 

 printed in The Review of May 21. It 



ia fulLof <good) scuuul aeaae.jmd shows 

 that he has given the matter a lot of 

 close study. As he says, southern con- 

 ditions must be met with methods 

 adapted to those conditions. In giving 

 advice to growers located long distances 

 fro.Ti here, I have always suggested that 

 no hard and fast rules could be laid 

 down, but that changes must be made 

 to meet the different conditions due to 

 difference in climate, etc. Most o£ 

 Mr. Adams' methods, however, are al- 

 most identical with those we practice 

 here, except that conditions there are 

 more extreme and must be met with 

 more extreme methods, and there is 

 where more skill is required than in 

 this latitude, where conditions are more 

 favorable. A. F. J. Baur. 



THE FLORIST'S HELFEB. 



If it is true that everyone has his 

 faults, it also is true that everyone has 

 his virtues. So, in condemning the 

 faults of employees let us do it gently, 

 and at the same time look for the vir- 

 tues. 



Whether an employee is good or poor 

 depends a great deal on the employer. 



If, when faults are found, the em- 

 ployer will also look for virtues, then 

 seek to develop the virtues and to re- 

 duce the faults, he will develop an em- 

 ployee who will suit almost exactly. 



FIGHTING THE ROSE APHIS. 



Rose growers who allow their plants 

 to be damaged by the ravages of the 

 rose aphis have only themselves to 

 blame, according to the United States 

 Department of Agriculture. Although 

 the aphis is widespread over the entire 

 country, as well as abroad, it is easily 

 controlled. Careful spraying of the 

 plants with solutions of nicotine will re- 

 move all danger, and neither the ex- 

 pense nor the trouble involved is suffi- 

 ciently great to be a real obstacle. 



The rose aphis is a small insect with 

 a body about one-twelfth of an inch 

 long. The young and some adult forms 

 are wingless, but certain adults develop 

 wings from time to time. The color is 

 either green or pink. By means of its 

 slender beak the aphis sucks out the 

 juices of the plant on whose buds and 

 unfolding leaves it feeds. These, pre- 

 vented from attaining their perfect form, 

 become curled and distorted, and the 

 beauty of the flowers is in large measure 

 ruined. Moreover, the aphis secretes a 

 sweet, sticky liquid, called honeydew, 



which spoils the appearance of the 

 foliage on which it is deposited. 



Under favorable conditions it propa- 

 gates rapidly throughout the year. For 

 example, some recent investigations con- 

 ducted in California by the Department 

 of Agriculture showed that one female 

 gave birth to forty-eight young in six 

 days. At the end of that time, the 

 mother aphis was knocked from the rose 

 and perished. 



This is not at all an uncommon fate. 

 A heavy rain, which washes the insect 

 away, is one of its most natural checks, 

 though birds and other insects prey 

 upon the aphis to a considerable extent. 

 Extreme heat is also unfavorable to the 

 aphis. 



The rose grower should not, however, 

 depend upon nature to rid his houses 

 of the pest. A forty per cent solution 

 of nicotine is much surer and not much 

 more trouble. One part of the solution 

 to from 1,000 to 2,000 parts of water, 

 with the addition of one pound of 

 whale-oil soap to every fifty gallons of 

 mixture, is recommended in bulletin 

 90, "The Rose Aphis," which the Unit- 

 ed States Department of Agriculture 

 has just issued. A more convenient 

 recipe, when there are only a few 

 bushes to be treated, is a teaspoonful 

 of forty per cent nicotine,*solution to 



