602 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



August 18, 1904. 



A. W. Smith, Jr., and wife have gone 

 to their cottage at Chautauqua for the 

 remainder of the summer. 



William Loew, known to the trade 

 generally as Billy Flowers, will be missed 

 from the convention for the first time 

 in many years. Billy is too busy arrang- 

 ing for his green goods business to go 

 any place. 



Joe Byerly, of Eandolph & McClem- 

 ents, is doing' Atlantic City. 



E. C. Ludwig is getting his new store 



on East Diamond street ready for a late 

 summer opening, and it is going to be 

 of the finest. Ernest never does anything 

 by halves. 



John Bader and daughter will leave 

 Wednesday, August 24, for a trip to Saa 

 F'rancisco, Cal., with the Knights Tem- 

 plar. This will be a thirty-five day trip, 

 traveling in their own train there and 

 back without change of cars. John is 

 always next to all the good things. 



Hoo-Hoo. 



CARNATION NOTES.-EAST. 



Insects. 



Preparations should at once be made 

 to guard against the 'ravages of insect 

 pests. They will certainly put in an ap- 

 pearance sooner or later, more likely 

 sooner than later. 



The old saying, "Nothing is sure but 

 death and taxes," should be amended to 

 include plant lice. It is poor economy 

 to wait until the plants are badly in- 

 fested, when so many means of prevention 

 are at hand, and prevention is the best 

 plan to follow, as the punctures made 

 by inserts not only weaken the plant, but 

 open the way for fungous disease germs 

 to enter; then, too, it is humiliating, 

 when showing a fellow grower over your 

 place, to hear remarks about the live stock 

 needing attention. These remarks per- 

 haps may not be audible, but might be 

 said to be almost discernible. 



The most prevalent pests, and at the 

 same time the easiest to prevetft or de- 

 stroy are the aphides. 



Light fumigation weekly with powdered 

 tobacco — the fumigating kind — gives 

 them no chance to obtain a foothold. 

 Thrips are sometimes brought in from 

 the field when housing the plants, and 

 their presence Is not detected at once, 

 but as soon as signs of their work is seen, 

 thorough fumigation with cayenne pepper 

 should be resorted to. 



I gave full directions last year for 

 using this remedy to be effective, but will 

 repeat my caution against using an adul- 

 terated article, as this is one of the main 

 reasons of failure. 



Red spider once established is a hard 

 customer to handle, but a sharp lookout 

 must be kept for its first appearance. It 

 can then be readily kept from spreading 

 by repeated syringing and ,in the end 

 conquered. I know of no preparation 

 that will act as a preventive. 



It is said, however, that some of the 

 concentrated extracts of tobacco will kill 

 them and perhaps can be employed in 

 some manner as a preventive. 



The carnation beetle referred to by Mr. 

 Scott has never troubled us, but having 

 had considerable experience with Slug 

 Shot, I am confident it will destroy them. 

 Nearly every year we hear of a new pest 

 to be added to the list of carnation en- 

 emies. 



Last season soon after housing we were 

 troubled with a green worm similar in 

 appearance to a cabbage worm, but dif- 

 ferent in many ways and new to me. 



Its capacity for eating caused some 

 anxiety, especially as this feasting waS 

 done during the night and being almost 

 exactly the color of foliage made it ex- 

 tremely difficult to catch. 



Several were captured and fed until 

 they passed into the chrysalis state. 

 These were kept and this spring hatched 

 out a dark brown moth. I am not up on 

 moths, but from close observation am 

 satisfied it is the genuine fly-by-night 

 sort and the eggs deposited when plants 

 are in the field. These worms were not 

 very particular in their taste: any part 

 of the plant lying in their path was cut 

 off, stem, bud or tender shoot, but Slug 

 Shot made short work of them. Paris 

 green would probably kill them, but I 

 am not an advocate of using this poison 

 on any plant. Geo. S. Osborn. 



RED SPIDER ON CARNATIONS. 



We have seen quite a number of red 

 spiders in our newly filled houses of car- 

 nations, brought in from field with the 

 plants. vVill you tell us the proper way 

 to use hydrocyanic acid gas, or is there 

 a better remedy? Too much water we 

 don 't think advisable yet. B. K. 



I have never had any experience in the 

 use of hydrocyanic acid gas and I hardly 

 know what to say in regard to using it 

 on your carnations before they have got- 

 ten into a vigorous growing condition. 

 My impression, however, is that I would 

 go a little slow in this matter. Unless 

 you have had some experience with the 

 stuff the danger of failure is too great 

 to risk your whole crop right at the 

 start. 



That it is a great thing is generally 

 conceded, and that it kills the spider 

 without damaging the plants, too. As 

 far as I know past experiments were 

 made on plants which were in a growing 

 condition. In your case, however, the 

 plants are not in that condition, and it 

 will be a couple or three weeks before 

 you can say that they have really become 

 established and are growing. I do not 

 say that the gas would injure them, buf 

 I would not care to risk a full dose on 

 them, and a half dose may not be strong 

 enough to kill the spider. 



You will find in the April 14 issue of 

 the Review an article telling you how 

 to figure the cubic contents of your 

 houses and the proportion of a dose of 

 the gas. If you do decide to try it on 

 your plants we would very much like to 

 hear with what degree of success. On ac- 

 count of its dangerousness in the hands 

 of inexperienced persons it has not as 

 yet become as common as many other 



less effective but less dangerous insecti- 

 cides. 



Personally I would prefer to syringe 

 the plants with clear water at least the 

 first ten days. If your plants are set 

 firmly and the soil settled around them 

 properly the plants will stand uo under 

 a good strong cutting spray. You should 

 keep them sprayea a good deal, any way, 

 so why not syringe them once or twice 

 each day and destroy the spider at the 

 same time. 



Salt water and soap dissolved in water 

 are both good, but you will find the 

 Tobakine liquid better than either of the 

 two. In a case like this it is not a ques- 

 tion of which is the cheapest, but rather 

 which is the safest and the most effective 

 remedy. What do a few dollars amount 

 to when it comes to saving your whole 

 season's crop? A. F. J. Baur. 



BOILER AND PIPING. 



My houses are two in number, 16x75 

 feeit each, elevien feet to the ridge, 

 running east and west. The south side 

 and both ends are glazed about one- 

 fourth to one-third the depth of the 

 wall; no glass on the north side; walls 

 built of sheathing and weather-boarding, 

 with building paper between. Our aver- 

 age winter weather is about freezing, 

 though the mercury often goes below. 

 We have had zero weather once in the 

 past twenty-five years, though it is safe 

 to say that we rarely have over fifteen 

 degrees of frost. I have not bought a 

 boiler, as I have not decided what kind 

 to purchase. I should like a boiler with 

 capacity for one or two more houses 

 than I now have. Is there a boiler on 

 the market that can be depended on to 

 keep a steady heat for six or eight hours 

 iit night in normal weather. My plant 

 is not large enough to justify a night 

 man. I have heard of magazine boilers. 

 Can they be successfully fired with 

 bituminous coal of nut size? Anthracite 

 would be too expensive. 



How low is it necessary to set a boiler 

 in the ground? The man that I have 

 engaged to pipe the houses says he 

 does not see any necessity for placing 

 boiler more than three feet below the 

 floor of the greenhouses. Of course, this 

 would be more convenient to remove the 

 ashes and take in fuel, if it would not 

 interfere with the circulation. I shall use 

 hot water. I have some 2% and 3-inch 

 pipe and will purchase some 1^ and 2- 

 inch for returns. Please advise best 

 method of laying same. South house for 

 carnations, two-thirds of north hoiise for 

 teas and remaining third for palms, 

 ferns. Asparagus plumosus, swainsona 

 and such. I have a partition in north 

 house. The narrow benches in the north 

 house will be used for lilies and miscel- 

 laneous stock. 



Would it be feasible to build a frame 

 on the south side of the carnation house 

 and rip off the weather-boarding be- 

 tween the frame and house. I could 

 grow quite a good deal of stuff in such 

 a frame, and I don't think it would 

 steal much heat from the house. How- 

 ever, when the sash on the frame were 

 open a strong draught into the house 

 would doubtless be created. Would that 

 be bad for carnations if it passed by 

 the pipes and circulated under the 

 benches? I want the boiler and pack- 

 ing shed at the west end and would like 

 to build them with a driveway left be- 

 tween the sheds and the west end of 

 the house. Would this- not be more safe 



