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192 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



DsckMBEB 15, 1904. 



HYDRCXrV^ANIC ACID GAS. 



In a former communication I alluded 

 to my experience in the use of this 

 powerful agent as unsatisfactory and 

 uncertain. I have experimented with 

 it cautiously but persistently for at 

 least five years. I have destroyed mil- 

 lions of insects in that time, but I 

 have also sacrificed hundreds of dol- 

 lars' worth of V9,luable crogs. It seems 

 as if I had tried it in o:Sr«ry degree 

 of temperature permissible .Jfl a green- 

 house, on wet nights and on d,ry . ones, 

 and yet I know nothing for , certain. 



The minimum quantity of cyanide 

 of potassium recommended by our 

 friends Scott and Croydon, is two, and 

 one-half ounces to 2,000 cubic feet of 

 air space. My houses contain from 

 40,000 to 60,000 cubic feet of space, 

 which would allow, if not require, from 

 fifty to seventy-five ounces of cyanide of 

 potassium, twenty to thirty quarts of 

 sulphuric acid and twenty to thirty 

 quarts of water. 



In such a house, 30x175 and eight feet 



to the ridge, I recently put three jars, 

 each containing two ounces of cyanide, 

 three ounces of sulphuric acid and four 

 and one-half ounces of water. White 

 fties in the winged state were quite thor- 

 oughly killed and the tender ends of 

 plants for nearly a foot seared as by 

 fire. What would have happened had I 

 multiplied the dose by eight or ten I 

 can hardly imagine. I have sometimes 

 used heavier quantities with less effect. 



We always buy the best quality guar- 

 anteed cyanide of potassium but it is 

 not always the same. Sometimes there is 

 a heavy residue of salt left in the jars but 

 some we now have leaves the water per- 

 fectly clear. This may account in part 

 for the different results, for sometimes 

 we hit it right, killing the insects with- 

 out injury to the plants. 



When Mir. Scott recommended five 

 ounces of cyanide for 2,000 feet of glass 

 I thought the printer had left off a cy- 

 pher, but when I find it repeated this 

 fall I can't understand it. The only 

 point I would make is that people had 

 better begin very small and increase as 

 necessary. G. C. A. 



CARNATION NOTES.— EAST. 



Marketing the Holiday Cuts, x' ■'•- 



Growers sometimes complain of the 

 small returns received from certain ship- 

 ments and of course the blame is .laid 

 to the commission man, who in all prob- 

 ability is not in the least at fault. The 

 grower is to a certain extent in the Jianda 

 of his agent but the law of supply and 

 demand makes prices. If the man at the 

 scene of demand is ignorant of the sup- 

 ply, he is in the position of a lawyer 

 from whom his client has withheld an 

 important point in his case. 



Keep your commission man fully in- 

 formed as to what you will have and are 

 likely to have. He will then be able to 

 take orders in advance from buyers who 

 will change their plans if any uncertainty 

 exists. The grower should confine him- 

 self to furnishing the supply and let de- 

 mand be handled by those best versed 

 in its intricacies and whims. 



It is obviously better to ship regularly 

 a prime article and receive a fair return 

 than to send at the last minute a large 

 consignment of stock which, even if it 

 did not include some pickled goods, ar-. 

 rives too late to be sold with the best 

 advantage. 



The above is especially true with re- 

 gard to trade around the holidays, when 

 the consumer is looking for an article of 

 extra quality. Decoration day calls for 

 quantity rather than quality but at 

 Christmas buyers are extremely critical 

 and there is no flower so lasting and at 

 the same time within the reach of all 

 classes, as the carnation. 



Forcing Christinas Crops. 



There is little that can be done now to 

 increase the supply except to increase the 

 temperature by degrees from three to 

 five points. Let this increase consume at 

 least a week and the decrease to normal 



temperature the same. If your plants are 

 not in the be^ of health on no account 

 raise the tempj^iTature. 



Last, but n0t least, do not cut every- 

 thing in sight. Besides being a severe 

 check on the plants, regular shipment is 

 interfered with and this is disappointing 

 to the commission man, who can often fill 

 orders directly after Christmas at high 

 prices. Geo. S. Osboen. 



CARNATION NOTES.-WEST. 



Handling the Christmas Cut. 



Just ten days from the time these 

 notes appear in print you will be in the 

 thick of the Christmas rush. Even now 

 you are wondering where you are going 

 to cut all the blooms your customers are 

 asking you to supply and wondering 

 whether you will be blest with sunny 

 weather during the next two weeks. 

 Much will depend on the weather. Not 

 only will you be able to cut a great 

 many more blooms, but with sun you 

 can force the plants a little with far 

 less harm than you could if the weather 

 were cloudy. Every experienced grower 

 knows full well that his plants will 

 thrive in a much higher temperature 

 when the weather is bright than they 

 will during cloudy weather; in fact, our 

 sunny day temperature is always 10 de- 

 grees higher than the cloudy day tem- 

 perature. So in case of bright weather 

 very little or no unnatural forcing will 

 be required to make the plants do all 

 that ought to be asked of them. 



The temperature can be raised 5 or 

 6 degrees at night during the last few 

 nights without harm to the plants if it 

 is done gradually, say a rise of a de- 



free each night until 6 degrees have 

 een added. A sudden jump of 6 de- 

 grees would be very apt to burst many 

 calyxe^for you, besides weakening the 

 plants materially. The size of the Ijloom 

 will diminish more, too. So go gradual- 



ly. 



In case of cloudy weather, then is 



when the grower has his trouble, espe- 

 cially if the weather had been moderate- 

 ly bright up to the last week. Even 

 with a considerable rise in the tempera- 

 ture the plants will not give the blooms 

 they would give in bright weather and 

 so, instead of cutting an increased crop, 

 you will have trouble in getting your 

 usual cut. It takes a level head to keep 

 balanced at such times. The public 

 wants the flower regardless of sunshine 

 and you are expected to deliver the 

 goods. You will have to bring into play 

 every wrinkle and trick you know of to 

 increase your output during the last 

 .three days, always bearing in mind, 

 however, that whatever you put out shall 

 be first class in every respect. 



Saving up bloom must be practiced to 

 some extent, but it should not be prac- 

 ticed to the extent of pickling. Many 

 growers injure their reputation through 

 this practice for the sake of a very few 

 dollars. Carnation blooms cannot be 

 saved up two weeks and then expected 

 to stand the handling they are invariably 

 eubjected to during the Christmas rush. 

 They may look nice and fresh and crisp 

 ■when you take them out of the cut flower 

 room but every little knock will bruise 

 them, when a fresh cut bloom would 

 show not the least effect. 



You can, however, save up your 

 blooms a week and have them in good 

 condition if you use good judgment in 

 cutting and handling. You can't save 

 every bloom a week, either, but you can 

 save most of them. There will be some 

 blooms that will be less firm than others, 

 and ijetme varieties will not store as well 

 as others. These you must watch and 

 market them before they deteriorate. The 

 different colors will have to be handled 

 differently. For instance, most of the 

 whi;^ varieties become whiter as the 

 blooDiB develop. Some of the reds be- 

 cbioQe a deeper, richer red, while others 

 los9 their brightness. Some of the pinks 

 become washy, while others of a darker 

 shade will take on a prettier, lighter 

 shade. Most all of the light pink va- 

 rieties fade out badly and especially so 

 if the sun is strong. 



To save the colors you will have to 

 cut them and set in a cool place, where 

 the light is not too strong, A cool, dry 

 cellar in which the temperature stands 

 about 45 to 48 degrees is an ideal place. 

 Let them have plenty of fresh air but 

 no draughts on the blooms. If you tie 

 them in bunches of twenty-five it will 

 save much wear on the blooms while 

 caring for them. Don't tie the stems 

 tight, but just enough to hold the 

 bunches together. Have the stems even; 

 then when you want to cut the stems 

 you can take one bunch after another 

 and with a sharp knife cut the stems 

 all at one time. Before sending them 

 out you must look over the bunches 

 carefully and replace any blooms which 

 did not keep perfectly. 



Do not crowd too many blooms in one 

 vase and do not put them in vases that 

 are too deep. Occasionally we see car- 

 nations with stems fifteen inches long 

 chucked down into a 12-inch vase. They 

 settle down into the vase until the 

 blooms become wedged together into a 

 small bunch, instead of each bloom stand- 

 ing away clear. If the stems are stiff 

 a vase that will reach not more than 

 half way up the stem is plenty deep 

 enough. With such a vase the blooms can 

 spread out over a space six times as 

 large as the vase and no crowding is 

 possible, A. F, J. Baur. 



