390 



The Weekly Florists* Review. 



July 21, 1904.. 



Seed Trade News. 



AMERICAN SEED T1IADE ASSOCUTKM. 



Pres., C. N. Page, Des Moines, la ; First Vlce- 

 Pres., L. U May. St. Paul; Sec y and Treaa., C. E. 

 Kendel, Cleveland. Tlie 23rd annual tneetlna 

 ^m pe heid on the St. Lawrence, June, 1906. 



European flower seed croos iii general 

 promise well. 



D. E. WiTTPKNN, of McHutchison & 

 Co., New York, is in Europe. 



Reports continue to come to hand of 

 damage to the sweet pea orop in Cali- 

 fornia. 



The harvesting of or.ion sets is in 

 progress on early fields in the Chicago 

 district. 



Reports from the Pacific coast are to 

 the eflfect that pole beans aro likely to 

 make a good crop. 



The onion maggot is doing serious in- 

 jury to the crop throughout the marsh 

 sections of Ohio and Indiana. 



The Leonard Seed Company has fin- 

 ished harvesting its Pearl onion sets. 

 It is considered an early liarvest for 

 such a late spring. 



Visited Chicago: J. T. Huntington 

 and T. V. Page, of Huntington & Page, 

 Indianapolis; Frank Rue, with J. C. 

 Murray, Peoria, 111. 



Word -has- been receivo<l from tlie 

 Harry N. Hammond Seod Company that 

 Mr. Hammond is no longer connected 

 with the business. 



The dry, hot weather of the past week 

 will shorten the onion stt crop at Chi- 

 cago many thousand bushels. It will add 

 to what is termed quality, however. 



Messrs. Huntington & Page, of In- 

 dianapolis, who are somewhat interested 

 m onion sets, inspected the ChicJigo set 

 fields, in company with S. F. Leonard, 

 July 19. 



Extreme dry weather at some of Ihe 

 bean growing points is causing uneasi- 

 ness. The present is a very critical time, 

 ad the crop is just aIon;j where weather 

 conditions will either make or break it. 



The World's Fair notices have led to 

 the belief that the great floral clock is 

 one of the works of the landscape de- 

 partment, but, instead, it is the exhibit 

 of the St. Louis Seed Co. It is probably 

 the most widely discussed exhibit on the 

 grounds. 



The blight, or aphis, or whatever it is, 

 IS causing the pickle vines to dry up 

 just as they did last year. TJiis" will 

 cause the same shortage of pickles and 

 also of the seed crop .is has prevailed 

 the past two years unless a remedy of 

 some sort is discovered speedily. 



The general ehairman of the member- 

 ship committee of the American Breed- 

 ers ' Association, Eugene D. Funk, Bloom- 

 mgton, 111., is progressing with his cam- 

 paign for a large membership for tliat 

 new organization. A life membership 

 has been received from Philip de Vil- 

 morin. Paris. France. Aiinnal member- 

 ship is $1 a year, life membership $20. 



CORN TO PLANT. 



Referring to recent notes on this suh- 

 ject, published in these columns, P. G. 



Holden, professor of agronomy at the 

 Iowa Agricultural College and Experi- 

 ment Station, writes: 



' * Our experiments would all indicate 

 that the butts and tips should be shelled 

 off. First, because it is impossible to 

 secure a good stand with any planter 

 when they are shelled in with the rest 

 of the corn. Second, even if the stand 

 should be secured, they give a lower 

 yield of corn. Last year we shelled 

 off about an inch from the tips and 

 about two-thirds of an inch from the 

 butts and then planted these by hand, 

 putting three kernels in each hill of both 

 the butts, middles and tips. The yields 

 were fifty-nine bushels for the butts, 

 sixty-six and two-thirds bushels for the 

 middles and fifty-five bushels from the tip 

 kernels. It so happens that one or two of 

 the varieties of corn that are best fille«l 

 out at the butts and tips, have had the 

 butts and tips removed for some forty or 

 fifty years. I will say further, that there 

 seems to be no good evidence at hand to 

 show that corn would be improved by 

 leaving the butts and tips on, in fact 

 there is every reason to believe that it 

 would tend to reduce the vitality of the 

 corn somewhat." 



C. G. Hopkins, professor of agronomy 

 of the University of Illinois and Experi- 

 ment Station, writes: 



' ' Investigations relating to the selec- 

 tion of seed corn sustain the opinion 

 which I think is commonly held by Illin- 

 ois seed corn breeders, namely, that the 

 only good recuson for discarding tip and 

 butt kernels is that they will plant more 

 uniformly and thus insure a more even 

 stand, on account of the kernels from the 

 main part of the ear being all about the 

 same size while the tip and butt kernels 

 are commonly irregularly shaped and of 

 a different size." 



MILLEPEDS. 



Kndosod find a little box containing a 

 few worms which have been giving us 

 quite a little trouble for nearly a year 

 in our greenhouse, especially in the 

 smilix. At present there are thousands 

 of very small ones In the smilax bed and 

 quite a number of the plants are dying. 

 We do not find that they trouble the 

 j)lants alwve the surfa-e of the bed. 

 They do not appear to work during the 

 day but are very much in evidence after 

 dark, climbing over the benches and 

 other parts of the house, (^an you tell 

 us what to apply to rid the house of 

 them? N. C. G. 



The worms in question aro variously 

 known as millepeds, myriapods, or thou- 

 sand-legs, the scientific name of which is 

 julus, there being several varieties of this 

 spec'ies. This pest is quite a common one 

 in greenhouses and sometimes becomes 

 very plentiful. While they have been 

 credited with living upon decayed vege- 

 table matter only, yet I believe that they 

 also attack living vegetable matter, such 

 as the young fronds of adiantums and 

 other tender organisms, and it is quite 



probable that the millepeds have trou- 

 bled the smilax also. 



The best remedy that I have dis- 

 covered, and that was discovered acci- 

 dentally, is thorough fumigating witl> 

 aphis punk, this preparation being used 

 in the proportion of six to eight rollis 

 of the punk to a house 24x100 feet,, 

 and the house being filmigated on two- 

 successive evenings, with the result that 

 very few live millepeds could be foundl 

 afterward. W. H, Taplin.. 



SPIDER ON ARAUCARIAS. 



I am sending a few branches cut from; 

 my Norfolk Island pines and would lik& 

 to know what the trouble is. I have- 

 heretofore been successful with these 

 plants, but now they are all more or less; 

 affected. The brsnches seem to dry up,, 

 turn brown and die. M. R. 



An examination of the araucaria 

 branchlets tliat accompanied this query 

 seems to show that the plant has been' 

 kept ill a warm house and in rather too* 

 dry an atmosphere, under which treat- 

 ment it has been attacked by red spider,, 

 the marks of this insect being abundant 

 on the leaves of the specimens. 



Araucaria excelsa enjoys moderately 

 cool treatment, with abundant moisture,, 

 a night temperature during the winter of 

 50 degrees being better for this plant 

 than warm house culture. 



The plant may be cleaned of red spider 

 and also of thrips, somo of which may 

 be present, by dipping two or three times 

 at intervals of a week in moderately 

 strong tobacco water, to which has been 

 added a thumbpot of flowers of sulphur 

 to a bucket of the tobacco extract. A 

 similar potful of rose leaf extract of 

 tobacco to a bucket of water would pro- 

 vide a solution quite strong enough for 

 this purpose, this being a more reliable- 

 way of preparing tobacco water than the 

 old method of steening or boiling the 

 stems. After dipping, the plant should 

 be laid down on its side in order to avoid 

 llie mixture running down the stem to 

 the roots, the tobacco and sulphur prepar- 

 ation being liable to do injurv to the- 

 soil. W. H. Tapi.in. 



Brooklyn, N. Y. — F. Maukee is build- 

 ing a greenhouse 20x100 to cost $3,000. 



Pansy Seed. 



A distinct and most beautiful race, which for 

 sise of blooms, diversity of colors and robust 

 Krowtn is unrivalled. The flowers are much 

 larfrer than the ordinary pansies, whilst the 

 form colors and markings are what a cele- 

 brated French grower terms "tulti rsfflirkibli " 



THE rmCST STRAIN IN CULTIVATION. 



Par superior to any other English, French or 

 Oermaa selections. 



Price M. 00 per oz. tl.OOperpkt Postage paid. 

 Dollar notes accepted in payment. 



The Surrey Seed Co., Ltd.,. 



BBDHZXiXi. SHOIiAVD. 



ICentlon Hie Rerlew wbra yoa write. 



ATTENTION! Orchid Growers 



Just received direct from the Tropics 



ONCIDIUM VARICOSUM ROGERSII 



■tronc Imported pUnts, 91.76 each; 918.00 per doi.; 9196 per lOO. 



ARTHUR T. B(imm^OH^'Sn^:\^'^yt:iLS!^ new YORK. 



Mention The Rerlew when yon write. 



