402 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



July 13, 1905. 



by writing to Mr. Bisset, Twin Oaks, 

 Washington, D. C, who will do all he 

 can to make the sojourn in Washington a 

 pleasant one. 



THE THUHLOWS. 



One of the oldest and best known of 

 Massachusetts nurserymen is T. C. 

 Thurlow, of West Newbury. Mr. Thur- 

 low's ancestors came from England in 

 the early days of the settlement, locat- 

 ing at Newbury in 1635. His grand- 

 father, born in 1777, was a farmer and 

 turned his attention to fruit growing 

 and market gardening. His son, born 

 in 1805, also went strongly in for fruit 

 growing. He also frequently visited 

 the nurseries of Wilder, Breck, Hovey, 

 Kenricks and other famous Boston men 

 of that time. Thomas Chase Thurlow, 

 born in 1832, inherited his ancestors' 

 love for fruits, but being of rather deli- 

 cate physique, after working with his 

 father in the nurseries for some time 

 taught a district school for two or three 

 years. In 1857 he went west for a 

 year, ridiug horseback in Missouri half 

 the time, and returned east with health 

 fully restored. 



He decided to start a nursery and 

 five acres at $50 per acre was the mod- 

 est beginning his purse would permit, 

 but he made and saved more on that 

 area than he has since done on forty. 

 Sugar maples and other shade trees, 

 evergreens and deciduous shrubs were 

 taken in hand. Living in a very cold 

 country, he quickly saw the necessity 

 of wind breaks and screens. Norway 

 and white spruce were mostly used. 

 The first hedge was planted forty years 

 ago, is eight feet high and eight feet 

 in diameter at the base. It is pruned 

 each year in August or September. 

 Other hedges planted have been allowed 

 to grow higher, from fifteen to twenty 

 feet high. One on the northwest side 

 of a ten-acre field is forty feet high. 

 Grass paths some eight feet wide are 

 left on each side of the hedge. These 

 are found convenient to team over. 

 Crops are found to grow just as well 

 Bear the hedges as away from them. 



The great advantage of these hedges, 

 which are very dense, is the protection 

 from cold winds to buildings and nur- 

 series. Thousands of hybrid rhododen- 

 drons, azaleas and other plants of 

 doubtful hardiness are carried through 

 without other protection of any sort. 

 Norway spruce is liked better than the 

 white spruce as a hedge. The Douglas 

 fir also promises well . and Siberian 

 arbor-vita) makes a neat hedge. Pines 

 are not a success and hemlocks are un- 

 reliable. 



These hedges shelter hundreds of 

 robins and other native birds, which 

 are fed in very severe weather. The 

 result is that the winter birds are found 

 to eat the eggs of various pests, and 

 the "dimmer birds the insects and 

 moths. Spraying has been found un- 

 necessary. Certainly all stock looks re- 

 markably clean in nurseries and 

 orchards. 



Peonies for many years have been a 

 great specialty with Mr. Thurlow. A 

 few years ago he sold his entire 

 collection to the Chicago Carnation Co., 

 Joliet, 111., but has again gone into 

 their culture extensively and now has 

 some 600 varieties, which include many 

 of the very finest French, English and 

 American sorts. He anticipates mak- 

 ing a big display in 1906 when the 

 Peony Society meets in Boston. Herba- 

 ceous phlox and German iris are other 

 specialties largely handled. Rhododen- 

 drons, azaleas, kalmias, choice speci- 

 men coniferse, shade trees and native 

 shrubs are other lines gone into heavily. 

 Plants are all well grown and a credit 

 to any nursery. 



Mr. Thurlow, although 72 years of 

 age, is as enthusiastic a grower as ever 

 and loves to talk on fruits, hedges and 

 shrubs, to say nothing of his favorite 

 peonies. He has two sons in the busi- 

 ness and a grandson makes the tenth 

 generation born at Newbury. There is 

 evidently little fear of the name of 

 Thurlow becoming a reminiscence, as 

 the young men are worthy chips of the 

 old block and extremely progressive 

 and up-to-date in all their ideas. 



W. N. Craig. 



EARLY INSECTICIDES. 



[A paper by C. N. Ruedllnger, read before 

 the Florists' Club of Hartford, Conn., at Its 

 June meeting,] 



In order to show that the raising of 

 good fruits and flowers by our ancestors 

 was carried on under difiiculties and suc- 

 cessfully accomplished largely through 

 the persistent use of insecticides, I here- 

 with give a short list of remedies used in 

 olden times, some of which are in use 

 today as standard insecticides: 



In 1629 John Parkinson recommended 

 for the canker to cut it out and then ap- 

 ply vinegar and cow manure. 



In 1711 a spray of water with ruta 

 was used in France for cantharides (fly). 



In 1763 a preparation was put up in 

 Marseilles as a remedy for plant lice, 

 consisting of bad tobacco and water- 

 slaked lime. Directions for use: "First 

 wet the trees infested with lice, then rub 

 flowers of sulphur upon the insects and 

 it will cause them all to burst." 



In 1791 Forsyth's Composition was 

 used: One bushel fresh cow dung, one- 

 half bushel lime rubbish, one-half bushel 

 wood ashes and one-sixteenth bushel sand 

 and soap suds, to make it bind. After 

 applying, sift dry powder of wood ashes 

 and one-sixth part ashes of burnt 

 bones. This composition was recom- 

 mended to cure disease, defects and in- 

 juries to plants, was held particularly 

 valuable in promoting the healing of 

 wounds and was commonly used to fill 

 cavities in trees. 



In 1797 an article appeared in the 

 New^ England Farmer or Georgical Dic- 

 tionary, where Sam Dean, D. D., vice 

 president of Bowdoin College, says: 

 ' * There are several experiments I could 

 wish to have tried for subduing these in- 

 sects, such as burning brimstone under 

 the trees in a calm time; or piling dry 

 ashes or dry loose sand, 'round the roots 

 of trees in the spring; or throwing pow- 

 dered quicklime or soot over the trees 

 when they are wet; or sprinkling them 

 about the beginning of June with sea 

 water or water in which wormwood or 

 walnut leaves have been boiled. The 

 liquid may be safely applied to all parts 



Old Home of T. C. Thurlow, West Newbury, Mass., Showing; Character of the Country. 



