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14(2 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



KOTBMBEB 9, 1905. 



United States as a useful source of heat, 

 the possibilities of which have hardly 

 been suspected. 



CLEVELAND. 



Seldom has there been such lavish 

 display of floral work in our city as 

 at the funeral of the late Henry S. 

 Storrs, general superintendent of the 

 Lake Shore railroad. The decorations 

 at the church were in charge of Harry 

 Jones, of the Gasser Co., who was as- 

 sisted by a representative of the Ber- 

 termann Bros. Co., of Indianapolis, who 

 furnished an exquisite casket cover of 

 American Beauties, orchids and white 

 chrysanthemums. There were several 

 floral railroad cars sent, the finest one 

 coming from Walker & McLean, of 

 Youngstown, Ohio. Designs and cut 

 flowers were sent from various points 

 from Omaha to New York. A large, 

 massive wreath of orchids and valley 

 from the New York Central lines was 

 shipped from Palmer's, Buffalo. There 

 were some six-foot wreaths of cycas 

 and chrysanthemums. Beauties were 

 used in large numbers and, while most 

 of the large designs were sent to the 

 church where the service^ were held, 

 most of the loose flowers were sent to 

 the house and these were distributed to 

 the hospitals the following day. The 

 estimated cost of the flowers used was 

 about $1,500. 



V^etable Forcing. 



WATERING. 



A Work of First Importance. 



"With the approach of the dull, short 

 days extra care will have to be exer- 

 cised in. the matter of watering. Though 

 to the novice the matter of watering 

 may seem quite a simple operation, the 

 man of experience knows that it is one 

 of the most important points in the suc- 

 cessful cultivation of all classes of 

 plants grown under glass. 



A good waterer must be a close ob- 

 server, both of the soil he is handling 

 and the special requirements of the 

 plants under cultivation. He must know 

 just when his plants require water and 

 how and where to apply it. Soils of 

 a heavy or retentive nature naturally 



require less frequent waterings than soils 

 of a free sandy composition, not that the 

 plants will absorb more water from the 

 one than the other, but from the fact 

 that the lighter soil does not hold so 

 much water as does the heavier and that 

 the water it does hold evaporates much 

 more quickly. In dull days evaporation is 

 naturally slower and the plant itself 

 requires less moisture. It is the action 

 of sunlight upon the foliage that enables 

 the plant to draw the moisture up 

 through its roots; hence, in the dull, 

 short days with a limited amount of sun- 

 light, a correspondingly limited amount 

 of moisture is necessary for the support 

 of the plant. 



It is easily to be seen, therefore, that 

 the application of too much water under 

 these conditions will prove hurtful to the 

 plants, not that the plants will take up 

 more than they need or can use, but that 

 the soil will get so surcharged with mois- 

 ture that the air will be excluded to a 

 hurtful degree and the soil will become 

 sour, the roots of the plants become in- 

 active, the plants themselves assuming 

 a yellowish appearance. Then when the 

 bright sunlight strikes them they will 

 flag just as if they were suffering from 

 lack of moisture. 



If the check has not been too severe, 

 and the soil has only become slightly 

 soured, the plants can be brought back 

 into a healthy condition by withholding 

 water and thoroughly stirring the soil 

 to admit air. But, as prevention is bet- 

 ter than cure, it is better to use ex- 

 treme caution in the application of water 

 in the first place and avoid the necessity 

 of nursing the plants back to health. 



Another mistake in watering is often 

 made by applying just a little water 

 when the weather is not so bright. This 

 dribbling is worse than no water, as it 

 never reaches the roots of the plants, to 

 do them any good, and so hardens the 

 surface of the soil that it stops capil- 

 lary attraction and robs the plants of 

 the support they would naturally get 

 from underground moisture. The saf- 

 est plan is to wait until the soil is dry 

 and then apply sufficient water to reach 

 to the proper depth, letting it dry out 

 well again before applying more and 

 choosing, if possible, a bright day for 

 the application so that the action of the 

 sun heat will remove, through evapora- 

 tion, a certain part of the moisture from 

 the upper surface of the soil and allow 

 the air to penetrate. 



Sub-irrigation has been found to be 

 advantageous in the forcing of lettuce 

 during the winter, as the keeping of the 

 surface dry prevents condensation of 

 moisture on the foliage, which facilitates 

 the development and spread of disease 

 spores. But good lettuce can be grown 

 without sub-irrigation if proper judg- 

 ment is used in the application of water 

 and the water applied on such days as 

 the surface of the soil will be pretty well 

 dried up by the time the house has to 

 be closed down. 



Such plants as tomatoes and cucum- 

 bers will of course need a good deal 

 more water than lettuce, from the fact 

 that requiring a higher temperature the 

 moisture will naturally evaporate much 

 quicker; besides, they have much more 

 foliage to support for the roots space 

 which they occupy, but nevertheless their 

 successful cultivation depends largely on 

 careful watering and close observation 

 of both soil and weather conditions. 



W. S. Ceoydon. 



THE LETTUCE WORM. 



I have been troubled every fall by a 

 light green worm which eats ray lettuce 

 in the greenhouse. Is there any way to 

 get clear of it beside picking it off with 

 the "fingers? I have tried tobacco, tea 

 and slug shot without any effect. 



J. R. C. 



I know of no other way of getting 

 rid of the worm you speak of than by 

 hand picking. As a rule the worms are 

 not so very numerous, but they are 

 healthy feeders and even one worm will 

 quickly disfigure a lettuce plant. I have 

 frequently used hydrocyanic acid gas for 

 destroying greenfly on lettuce and was 

 in hopes that this would also destroy the 

 green worm, but it takes a good deal 

 more to kill them than it does to kill 

 fly. No doubt they could be killed by 

 this means, but to use the gas strong 

 enough to do it I am afraid would also 

 hurt the plants and I have never had 

 them in such numbers that I considered 

 the experiment worth trying. The worm 

 is hatched from the eggs of a butterfly 

 and if you keep your eye peeled for the 

 fellow with wings, and destroy him at 

 sight, you will come pretty near stamp- 

 ing out the trouble. W. S. Croydon. 



Wyandotte, Mich. — J. E. Smith held 

 his annual opening last week and made a 

 nice show. It attracted many visitors. 



Flowers for the Storrs Funeral at Cleveland, Including Work from Many Cities. 



