598 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



Fbbruart 2, 1905. 



soil should have reached a condition in 

 which healthy plants can no longer be 

 grown, seeing that you have grown the 

 same crop exclusively for three years 

 without changing your soil. Of the 

 nematode theory I am a little doubtful 

 and, although sterilizing might help 

 your soil, it would by no means put it 

 back into a thoroughly fertile condition. 

 Having used commercial fertilizers ex- 

 clusively the soil is no doubt over- 

 charged with certain chemical sub- 

 stances, while others are lacking. You 

 do not say what fertilizers you have 

 used but I know of no commercial fer- 

 tilizer that can be classed as a com- 

 plete manure. The barnyard article is 

 the nearest approach to a complete 

 manure that can be had. Again, the 

 same crop grown successively is rob- 

 bing the soil of the same ingredients 

 year after year, and unless you go into 

 a thorough chemical analysis you could 

 not tell just what the soil contains. 

 Even outdoors I would not think of. 

 growing tomatoes in the same soil for 

 three successive years, despite the fact 

 that outdoors the soil has the advan- 

 tage of the purifying influence of the 

 atmosphere. 



Judicial rotation of crops is consid- 

 ered one of the most essential elements 

 to success in horticulture as well as 

 agriculture, but under glass rotation is 

 not often possible and the only thing 

 that can be done is to renew the soil. 

 This I would advise once a year if it 

 can possibly be done. The matter of 

 soil is sometimes a serious question but 

 the diflBculty is not hard to surmount 

 if you can secure a piece of land for 

 «oil purposes. When you remove the 

 sod to make up the soil heap, cover 

 the ground stripped with the soil taken 

 from your benches or beds and sow 

 down in grass and clover. Let it re- 

 main thus for two or three years and 

 it will be just as good as if it had 

 never been used for greenhouse work. 

 If enough ground can be had so that 

 you can strip one-third of it every year, 

 you can keep up a continuous supply 

 of good soil. W. S. Croydon. 



GROWING LARGE ONIONS. 



Where extra large onions are desired 

 the present is a good time to begin oper- 

 ations. Procure seed of some of the 

 large-growing varieties. Prizetaker and 

 Ailsa Craig are both good ones. So•<^ 

 in a rather free soil in flats and place in 

 a temperature of 60 degrees. Water 

 rather sparingly until the onions are 

 well up. When the plants are large 

 enough to handle, lift in bunches and 

 shake the soil from the roots as care- 

 fully as possible. It is here where free 

 soil has an advantage over stiff, heavv 

 soil, which will not shake off so readily. 

 Prick into flats again, allowing about an 

 inch between the plants. As the soil 

 should be richer than formerly used, the 

 addition of some finely sifted, dry horse 

 or cow manure will be advantageous, but 

 the soil should still be free. Set in the 

 same temperature as before for three or 

 four weeks. By this time they will have 

 made quite some growth. Then lower the 

 temperature and gradually harden off 

 preparatory to planting out. 



The time of planting out will depend 

 a good deal on the season, but as a rule 

 this can safely be done about the middle 

 of April. A light frost will not hurt 

 them, but heavy frost would give them 



quite a check. A piece of good groun.i 

 should be chosen, and this should be lib- 

 erally enriched with manure. They can 

 be set from twelve to fifteen inches be- 

 tween the rows, according to the amount 

 of ground at disposal. The wider the 

 rows are apart the more conveiiient for 

 cultivating. Five inches between the 

 plants in the rows will be about right; 

 this space they will pretty well fill, pro- 

 viding good culture and liberal feeding 

 are given. With this they can be had as 

 large as fifteen inches in circumference. 

 Considering the extra care necessary, 

 it would hardly pay to grow onions by 

 this method rbr general market purposes; 

 it is mainly as an exhibition article that 

 they are thus grown. The forced growth 

 naturally produces a rather soft onion, 

 and they cannot be depended on to keep 

 like smaller, firmer onions. When I first 

 started to grow by this method I used 

 the Prizetaker variety and I laid the 

 poor keeping qualities to the variety. To 

 satisfy myself of this, one year I tried 

 several varieties. Among them were 

 Yellow Globe Danvers, Southport White 

 Globe and other good keeping varieties, 

 but I found that they went just as bad 

 as the Prizetaker in the same room 

 where smaUer, firm onions of the same 

 varieties kept well, thus proving that it 

 was the forced growth that lay at the 

 root of the trouble. W. S. Croydon. 



BEST EARLY TOMATO. 



What is the best early tomato for 

 planting outdoors for market? It should 

 be of good size and smooth. 



L. F. W. 



Karliana and Freedom are both good. 

 In either case the fruits are smaller than 

 the general crop varieties, but these are 

 the largest and best of the very early 

 sorts. W. 8. Croydon. 



HOUSE FOR LETTUCE. 



I wish to build a house 20x100 for 

 lettuce. Would a three-quarter span 

 house be better than an even-span house 

 and how high should the ridge be if 

 the side walls are four feet highf I 

 should be glad of any other Unts on 

 building a house adapted to my purpose. 



J. W. R. 



I would prefer an even-span house 

 for lettuce forcing. Ten feet high at 

 the ridge ought to give a good pitch 

 to the roof and will be quite high enough 

 for your purpose. It is unnecessary to 

 build raised benches for lettuce; it does 

 much better on the floor of the house 

 or in solid beds. By constructing solid 

 beds, raising them a foot or more above 

 the ground level it would bring your 

 plants better up to the light but if you 

 do not care to go to this trouble they 

 can be grown all right on the ground 

 floor. W. S. Croydon. 



NEW YORK. 



The Market 



The last week was a record breaker 

 for disagreeable weather, the market not 

 suffering so seriously in years. Not 

 only waa the temperature at times be- 

 low zero, but the blizzard was unequaled 

 in its fury and injury to business since 

 1888. Some days there were neither 

 shipments nor business and even now, 

 after a week of effort, the blockade 



continues to yield loss and disaster. 

 The drifts in Twenty-eighth street hide 

 the wholesalers from each other and 

 thereby encourage speculation. January 

 has gone out like a lion. 



Many shipments h&ve arrived frozen. 

 A dozen reasons appeared for the enor- 

 mous supply of pickled carnations on 

 Saturday. Evidently the growers had 

 heard of McKinley day, but the demand 

 was hardly noticeable. Prices asked in 

 the early morning oi Saturday were cut 

 in two before the evening and still the 

 expected demand did not materialize. 

 The day was a disappointment. The 

 prices of roses and carnations are also 

 depreciated by the enormous quantities 

 of bulbous stock, narcissi and tulips es- 

 pecially, now flooding the market. These 

 were bought for decorative work in 

 thousands. 



With the coming of better weather 

 social events will be resumed and nor- 

 mal conditions will again prevail. Some 

 of the grandest balls of the year are 

 close at hand. 



Various Notes. 



Annual dinners are not yet exhausted. 

 On Friday of this week the New Jersey 

 Floricultural Society celebrates its tenth . 

 anniversary at Elks' hall, Orange, N. J., 

 and on Saturday evening, at the St. 

 Denis Hotel, the New York Florists' 

 Club has its annual banquet.' Don't for- 

 get it, and if you have not secured your 

 tickets when you read this, wire Chair- 

 man Sheridan and get there. Already 

 sixty tickets have been sold. There 

 should be an attendance of 100. 



A week from Monday will be carna- 

 tion night at the New York Florists' 

 Club. Many of the leading carnationists 

 will send the new varieties and attend. 

 A fine entertainment and luncheon will 

 be furnished the ladies and a large at- 

 tendance is sure. The evening promises 

 to be the best the club has ever enjoyed. 

 Exhibitors can express their flowers to 

 Secretary Young, for care and staging. 



Mrs. Bourgue, of Yonkers, wife of 

 Edward Bourgue. salesman for C. A. 

 Dards, died suddenly of heart disease on 

 January 20. i 



H. B. O'Dell is not in the service of 

 W. Elliott & Sons and B. McNeff is now 

 their traveling representative. 



Jos. Leikens has completed his con- 

 servatory and is rapidly building up a 

 metropolitan business, ably assisted by 

 Mrs. Fenrich, whose attention to details 

 and artistic work is proving of valuable 

 service. 



James Carrol, with Mackintosh, is ful- 

 ly recovered from his serious illness and, 

 as usual, has some wonderful Easter 

 novelties up his sleeve. Every one of 

 his Christmas novelties was sold long 

 before the holidays were over. 



Forsythia, heather, primroses and 

 Croweanum fern made a beautiful com- 

 bination in Small's windows last week. 

 All the prominent retailers are doing 

 artistic window decorating. 



Bronchial sickness and la gripr^e still 

 prevail among the trade. It is hard 

 to name any one who has been exempt 

 from these things and some are still 

 seriously ill. 



All passenger rates on the L. T. B. R. 

 were raired thirty to fifty per cent on 

 February 1, an unexpected event that 

 will be felt seriously by the army of 

 cut flower merchants who bring their 

 products to the market every morning. 



J. H. Pepper was held up at Thirtieth 

 street and Lexington avenue last week 



