FiUBBUARY 14, 1907. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



927 



The Rear and Front Views of a Group Arranged with the Wihbold Plant Stand. 



early it will net him a handsome profit. 

 The Bermuda onions require irrigation. 

 This means a large initial investment, 

 but, in my opinion, under irrigation the 

 returns to the grower are much more 

 profitable, as the demand seems almost 

 unlimited. The onion growers are or- 

 ganized much on the same plan adopted 

 by the grape growers of Council Bluffs, 

 and with such an organization they will 

 be able to command higher prices in 

 the future than they have been get- 

 ting." 



When Mr. Wilcox goes out on a land- 

 hunting expedition he goes equipped for 

 business, His is no superficial survey. 

 He consults government weather reports 

 for statistics on wind, rainfall, etc., car- 

 ries a spade and an auger with which 

 to test soils, and is an inveterate inter- 

 viewer, gathering information from every 

 source possible as he proceeds. 



"What do you think of Texas land as 

 an investment, ' ' was asked Mr. Wilcox. 



* ' Carefully selected Texas land, ' ' re- 

 plied Mr. Wilcox, "cannot but be an ex- 

 cellent investment. Any good land in the 

 state that is located within a reasonable 

 distance of the market will be worth $20 

 to $25 an acre in another year. But land 

 is not the only thing in which invest- 

 ments can be profitably made in that 

 state. At Corpus Christi there are hun- 

 dreds of acres of cabbage, cauliflower 

 and cucumbers that are grown for the 

 northern markets and are netting the 

 growers a handsome profit. While there 

 I saw orange trees loaded with fruit. At 

 San Antonio the parks are beautiful and 

 roses are in bloom now, and while I was 

 there we enjoyed real summer weather. 



We bought our newspapers on the 

 streets from barefooted boys and 

 read them on the hotel veranda. It was 

 my first trip south and it was certainly 

 an interesting one to me." 



TROUBLE WITH VIOLETS. 



I am having trouble in my violet 

 house with a small black or brown fly 

 that seems to be in the soil as well as 

 on the plants; in fact, they are all over. 

 I have fumigated with tobacco stems 

 several times with little or no effect. 

 There are also quite a number of white 

 and yellow maggots in the soil. Some 

 of the plants are in good condition, 

 while others seem to be dying. The 

 plants seem to be slow in budding; some 

 of the strongest are not blooming at all. 

 The soil is not very good, as I was late 

 in getting started, and I didn't have 

 time to prepare it. I simply dug it up 

 and mixed three loads with one of 

 manure and put it in the benches. 



E. W. G. 



You have my sympathy in your 

 troubles. As it is getting so late in the 



season that you would not get them in 

 good order to bloom, even if you treated 

 them successfully, and as. they are so 

 far gone, the best thing you can do is 

 to cremate them, root and branch, on a 

 good hot boiler fire, every last one of 

 them. I would not want any stock from 

 plants in the condition you describe. 

 Then I would clean out all the soil and 

 spread it out on the ground outdoors, in 

 a thin layer, so that the frost would 

 have a good chance at it all. Then if 

 the house is devoted to violets alone, I 

 would give it one or two good sulphur 

 fumigations, a few days apart, then 

 sweeten up the benches, soil under 

 benches, etc., with a good h^avy coating 

 of hot, freshly slaked lime. Then it will 

 be in good shape to be useful for spring 

 stock of any kind; and I never saw 

 any one with room enough at this time 

 of the year. R. E. S. 



TOO HIGH TEMPERATURE. 



Will you please inform mc what effect 

 too much lime has on Marie Louise 

 violets? Ours produce flowers light in 

 color. A large amount of lime was 

 worked into the soil. We keep the tem- 

 perature at 46 degrees at night and 58 

 degrees in daytime and from 60 to 65 

 degrees ou bright days, with plenty of 

 air. J. N. A. 



I do not think that the light color of 

 your violets comes from the lime in the 

 soil, but should more likely thinlTthat it 

 was a lack of enough and proper manure 

 in the soil when making up the borders. 

 Have you had aphis on them? They 

 will weaken the plants so that the flowers 



