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Jamu^x 28, 1915. 



The Florists^ Review 



17 



■.:-..'VSe- 



CARNATION CUT FIGURES. 



There is an old saying to the effect 

 that confession is good for the soul — 

 and The Review has this week to con- 

 fess that an. old friend has "put one 

 over", on this paper, his previous re- 

 liability permitting a report of cuts 

 to get into print without the scrutiny 

 it should have had. Because the 

 figures published last week as the cut 

 of the Iowa Seed Co., Des Moines, were 

 preposterous on their face, M. Kurtz- 

 weil, president of that company, kindly 

 permits the publication of the follow- 

 ing record of the actual number of 

 plants oh the benches and the, cut from 

 them from September 1 to January 1: 



Carnation plants on benches '.......;.,. 9,758 



Cut for the 4 months epdln^ Dec. ,31, 1914.. 40,718 

 Rose plants other than Atnerican Beauties. . 2,006 



Cut for the 4 months ' '. 27,880 



American Beauty plants ^.. ..^. 500 



Cut for the 4 montis 1,870 



RUST AND RED SPIDER. 



" We are in need of some advice. There 

 is a lot of rust on our carnation plants. 

 It only bothers one kind. Enchantress. 

 What can we do to stop it, or at least 

 check itt We have been careful not 

 to water overh^ud during the winter 

 and only on bright days early in the 

 fall. In fact, we need to water or 

 spray for red spider, but cannot do so 

 on account of rust. What can we spray 

 with to get rid of red spider, or can we 

 get rid of it without spraying? The 

 other varieties in the same houses aro 

 free from rust, but we are afraid the 

 trouble will spread. Do angleworms in 

 the benches do any harm? We have 

 noticed in the morning the little holes 

 where they had come up at night. 



8. B. 



While spraying is sometimes the 

 cause of the appearance of rust, and 

 excessive spraying is no doubt in- 

 jurious to carnations during the winter 

 months, yet it is not always the cause 

 of this trouble, nor will abstinence from 

 spraying insure immunity from this 

 disease. Excessive watering at the 

 roots or a heavy mulch, either of which 

 will cause excessive moisture in the 

 atmosphere and even foulness, will start 

 the trouble. It has also been stated 

 that excessive humus in the soil will 

 aggravate the trouble, and this sounds 

 reasonable. 



Most growers make a practice of 

 syringing their carnations with a sharp 

 spray from the hose once each week, if 

 the weather is at all flf. That is usu- 

 ally enough to keep away red spider. 

 Sprajdng with Bordeaux mixture helps 

 to keep spider in check. One of the 



best remedies I have ever run across 

 is the following: Take one-half pound 

 of arsenic and five pounds of white 

 sugar. Mix them dry. Then add 

 enough water to make a thick syrup. 

 Mix one drug ounce to one gallon of 

 water and spray through your com- 

 pressed air sprayer. By adding nicotine 

 at the same rate as you use for aphis, 

 this remedy will also be found eflPective 

 against thrips. 



While angleworms are not especially 

 injurious to plants unless they are 

 present in large numbers, yet they are 

 of no benefit either. You can clear 

 them out with a top-dressing of air- 

 slaked lime, watered in. A. F. J. B. 



IT IS DRY ROT. 



We are enclosing some carnation 

 plants which are badly diseased. What 

 is the diseasp and how can it be 



checked? The plants were grown out- 

 side, with the usaal treatment, and two 

 of the benches were planted between 

 August 1 and 10. It is only in these 

 two benches that the plants are af- 

 fected. We used for these two benches 

 some soil in which we had grown one 

 crop of fairly good carnations, losing 

 about twenty or twenty-five plants 

 during the winter of 1913-14, apparently 

 from stem-rot or something of that 

 sort; otherwise the plants were all 

 right. 



With the old soil we mixed a liberal 

 quantity of cow manure and the plants 

 started nicely. We lost a few plants 

 at that time, about one per cent, but 

 did not see any sign of disease until 

 about the middle of October, when the 

 Beacons began to wilt slightly. We 

 used air-slaked lime, dusting all the 

 plants with it, and kept the plants on 

 the dry side, but this did not do much 



Emll C Bfucker. 



(TresBurer Buffalo Florists' Clu»>.) 



M 



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