J 708 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



May 3, 1906. 



rhubarb was ready to cut five days ear- 

 lier than the other, and what is still 

 more important, the etherized product 

 gave a much larger proportion of salable 

 stalks, making the treatment from a 

 commercial viewpoint doubly valuable. 



It is not difficult to treat the plants 

 with the ether, the chief care being to 

 construct a suitable box. The one used 

 at Cornell was an air-tight, galvanized 

 -iron box three feet three inches by two 

 feet six inches. The box was fitted with 

 two trays, which made it possible to 

 have three tiers of plants undergoing 

 the exposure at once. 



The trays should be made of heavy 

 wire mesh, in order that the ether may 

 penetrate equally to every part of the 

 plant at once. In exposing such plants 

 as the Golden Glow and aquilegia to the 

 ether as much dirt as possible should be 

 shaken from the roots, in order to give 

 the ether free access to the roots. 



The cover fits down over the box for 

 about five inches, resting on a flange of 

 thick felt, which renders it air-tight. 

 "When all the provisions are complete. 



the ether is poured on a . small ball of 

 felt, which is dropped in the box; the 

 cover is clamped down and the plants 

 left from twenty-four to forty-eight 

 hours. 



When the plants are taken from the 

 box they should be thoroughly aired be- 

 fore they are placed in the forcing 

 house. 



The subject of the etherization of 

 plants is only just begun, as these are 

 almost the first experiments that have 

 been made in this country. It promises, 

 however to open an entirely new field in 

 the realm of horticulture, and especially 

 in the florists' and the market gardeners' 

 line. 



The specimens grow with increased 

 rapidity, and the flowers are in many 

 cases more perfect and attain a fuller 

 maturity than those grown by the ordi- 

 nary method. At the same time the 

 plant has the other and moat valuable 

 advantage to the man who is growing 

 for commercial purposes, that he is en- 

 abled to be from one to three weeks 

 ahead of the season. 



CARNATION NOTES.-WEST. 



Planting in the Field. 



After this job is once begun, it should 

 be put through just as quickly as pos- 

 sible, and the work done properly. If 

 you plant out only a few thousand and 

 only one or two men work at it, it means 

 merely to stick to it and work as rapidly 

 as you can. But if you plant out an acre 

 or more and several men work on the 

 job, then you want to inaugurate some 

 system under which each one will have 

 his part to perform, and in the perform- 

 ing of which he can work as rapidly as he 

 is capable of doing without interfering 

 with any of the others. If your force is 

 divided properly, none will have to wait 

 for the others. One man should dump 

 out as many plants as two can plant and 

 these three, with a boy to drop the plants 

 along the line and another boy to wheel 

 the trays full of plants out to the field, 

 ought to set out a good batch each day. 



As I have said before, we have a one- 

 horse hillside plow, and each day plow 

 and harrow as much as we expect to 

 plant that day, which gives us freshly 

 turned soil to set the plants in. We get 

 more and better work, and it is better 

 for the plants. How close you plant will 

 depend largely on how much ground you 

 have and how you wish to cultivate them. 

 Those who have large farms and set out 

 many thousands of plants and intend to 

 cultivate with horsepower, of course must 

 set their rows two to three feet apart, 

 but most growers plant closer than that 

 and use hand cultivators, which we think 

 is the most satisfactory. 



There are several ways of planting, 

 and each has its advocates. One way is 

 to plant in rows sixteen inches apart and 

 eight inches apart in the row. These can 

 be cultivated only one way and will have 

 to be hoed between the plants. The 

 other way is to use a marker with teeth 



twelve inches apart. You plant in rows 

 across the field lengthwise, but before 

 you begin planting you draw this marker 

 across the width of several rows so the 

 plants will be set in straight rows across 

 the field crosswise as well as lengthwise. 

 The rows to be twelve inches apart, too. 

 This method enables you to cultivate both 

 ways and has some advantages in that 

 respect. An acre of ground planted in 

 this way will hold 43,081 plants. 



When setting the plants use a trowel 

 and be sure the soil is pulverized. Set 

 each plant just deep enough so the ball 

 is covered with soil, and after pressing 

 well, cover again with loose soil to pre- 

 vent the soil from baking and from dry- 

 ing out. Of course you use a line to 

 plant by. If the plants are from pots 

 and are planted properly, they will stand 



several days without rain without injury, 

 but if you have the water service close it 

 will pay you to run a pipe out to the 

 field and water them a few times until 

 they get a good hold. 



Every evening before quitting time 

 have one of the men go through the day's 

 planting with the hand cultivator to 

 loosen up the soil where it has been 

 tramped down. 



Don't dump out too many plants 

 ahead of the planters, and when they 

 are dumped out keep them out of 'the 

 sun and draught until you are ready to 

 plant them. It will surprise you how 

 rapidly they will dry out when out of the 

 pots. Be sure they are not dry when 

 you dump them. 



Be sure the plants are clear of insects, 

 too, because if they are infested with 

 spider or aphis when you plant them 

 out the chances are you will have trouble 

 before the summer is over, and these 

 pests are harder to fight out in the field 

 than in the house. If there is disease, 

 pick off all the affected leaves as you 

 dump them; they will stand more chance 

 of getting rid of it then. 



A. F. J. Baub. 



CARNATION BEDS. 



We are to grow carnations near Lon- 

 don, for the Covent Garden market and 

 for stock. We are to plant a house 300 

 feet long with the American varieties 

 and want to know if they would do plant- 

 ed on raised drainage composed of climb- 

 ers about a foot thick. This would come 

 much cheaper to us than erecting 

 benches. Anxious. 



Some six years ago we made our first 

 experiments with this kind of beds and 

 we found them so satisfactory that we 

 now grow all our carnations on beds con- 

 structed as I shall explain. In making 

 our experiments we constructed one bed 

 5x175 in a house which had three raised 

 benches. We planted this bed with the 

 same varieties that were plantea on the 

 raised bench just across the walk. We 

 did not keep count of the number of 

 blooms cut, nor the grading, but the ap- 

 pearance of the plants aU through the 

 season was such as to leave no doubt as 

 to which style would give us the best re- 

 sults. As fast as the raised benches 

 needed replacing we took them out and 



Carnation House of J. J. Nussbaumer, San Angelo, Tex. 



