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FKBiiuARY 28, 1907. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



J 089 



The Schillo Establishment, where Pecky Cypress has Become a Leading Specialty. 



Pecky cypress is like any other cy- 

 press except that it looks as though it 

 were full of worm holes, but isn't; it is 

 especially like other cypress in that it 

 has to be open air dried in the south. 

 It is dried until it weighs three pounds 

 to the board foot, or 3,000 pounds to 

 the thousand feet. Consequently 10,000 

 feet will make a minimum car. The 

 Schillo Lumber Co. bad cars shipped di- 

 rect from the mills in Louisiana to flo- 

 rists in New England and to growers in 

 the far west, and it is only a question of 

 time when all growers will use it. If 

 the local lumber yard won't carry it, so 

 that a few hundred feet can be had when 

 wanted, growers can club together and 

 get in a car. 



But it doesn't take so very many feet 

 of bench to call for a minimum car of 

 pecky'-cypress. It comes 1x6 inches and 

 the boards eight, twelve or sixteen feet 

 long, so they will just reach the cross- 

 pieces with posts set four feet apart. 

 With about an inch between for drain- 

 age, a bench four feet wide will take 

 seven boards, or three and one-half feet 

 lumber measure for each lineal foot of 

 bench. Side pieces bring it up to four 

 and one-half feet. Consequently a min- 

 imum car, 10,000 feet of lumber, would 

 suffice for only twenty-two benches 4x 

 100. The average car contains 13,000 

 to 15,000 feet. 



The Review has several times called 

 attention to pecky cypress as meriting a 

 trial by all greenhouse owners for com- 

 parison with hemlock and has urged the 

 selling agency, which markets the output 

 of the cypress mills, to arrange so that 

 any grower could buy in moderate quan- 

 tities, as a basis for building up a profit- 

 able trade in this long neglected product 

 of the southern forests. It is promised 

 that something soon may be doing along 

 these lines, for it is reported that one 

 mill now has 800,000 feet of 1x6 pecky 

 boards on hand. 



PACKING FOR SHIPMENT. 



[In a discussion of special express rates be- 

 fore the Society of Sonthera Florists at the New 

 Orleans Convention, C. W. Elcbling concluded 

 with a few words on packing.] 



As regards proper packing, this sub- 

 ject treated in detail would fill a book, 

 and I shall confine myself to pointing 

 out a few advantages and abuses in 

 packing. In the proper packing of 

 plants a number of things have to be 

 considered, and it is as difficult to teach 



packing by a lecture as it is to cure a 

 disease by correspondence. Experience, 

 practice and good judgment are the only 

 teachers, and here is where the necessity 

 comes in of a young man to learn his 

 trade under an experienced foreman. 



A Recent Experience. 



With an order before you in the pack- 

 ing shed, look at the nature of the ship- 

 ment and the distance it has to travel. 

 Then pick out a box of proper size and 

 strength. Too often unnecessary charges 

 are paid on boxes entirely too large and 

 heavy for the contents. I have here a 

 striking example of how not to do it, 

 and when this box arrived I called in 

 several brother florists to witness the 

 weight, style of packing and condition 

 of contents. The box was received with 

 a few small palms, primulas, Lorraine 

 begonias and cyclamens valued at $10.95. 

 The box and paper alone weighed eighty- 

 three pounds; the entire weight was 180 

 pounds; express charges $6.12, at special 

 rate, while the plants were worth, as 

 above stated, $10.95. 



On opening the monster we found 

 that the plants had slipped through the 

 cleats, and we pulled out a mess of 

 paper, root balls, broken Lorraines and 

 primulas, with enough of mashed cycla- 

 men to complete the limit. What we 

 had to show for our $17 was hardly 

 worth 17 cents, except the box, which is 

 good for years to come. We complained 

 to the shipper, stating all the facts, and 

 expressed our belief that he was ignorant 

 of the careless way in which the ship- 

 ment was handled. But he had our 

 money, and simply advised us to get our 

 damages out of the express company, 

 who was not in the least to biame, as it 

 was a physical impossibility to damage 

 the monstrous box which you see before 

 you in perfect condition. 



Good Packing the Rule. 



As a rule it is a pleasure to open a 

 box of plants from most of our large 

 shipping houses. Young roses in large 

 collection, wrapped five of a kind in 

 paper with a long wooden label, a layer 

 of paper dividing the varieties, the box 

 well filled so the plants can not move in 

 transit; they will not get mixed or dam- 

 aged, and the box being of proper 

 strength, the express charges will add 

 but little to the cost of the plants. 



Soft stuff, such as geraniums, helio- 

 tropes, etc., may be packed in the same 

 manner with damp sphagnum at the 



roots, and dry excelsior or moss around 

 the foliage for protection. Packed in 

 this manner we have received large boxes 

 of adiantums from Washington, D. C, 

 and never lost over three per cent of the 

 tender plants. Large shipments of the 

 tender plants should be packed in sepa- 

 rate boxes of from forty to fifty pounds 

 each, or if packed in large boxes, a 

 wooden partition should be nailed in 

 after the box is half filled so the bottom 

 layers will not have to carry the entire 

 weight of the contents. Heating and 

 decay are much easier avoided by this 

 precaution. 



Large cyclamens in bloom, Lorraine 

 begonias, Adiantum Farleyense and 

 plants of this nature travel best in the 

 pots, standing upright in the box, the 

 box crated to the full height of the 

 plants, which must be staked and 

 wrapped with from four to six thick- 

 nesses of paper. Tight packing be- 

 tween the pots is essential to avoid 

 slipping. 



Large palms, araucarias, dracsenas, 

 etc., with solid pot balls, should be 

 cleated to the ends of the box, foliage to 

 the center. Great care must be used to 

 wrap and tie the root balls, as other- 

 wise they will slip through the cleats 

 and damage is the result. Such large 

 plants should go by freight, at a season 

 when .damage by heat or cold is least 

 expected. 



During warm weather, ventilating holes 

 must be cut in the boxes, and protected 

 with wire cloth against rats. During 

 cold weather boxes must be lined with 

 several layers of paper and cotton, or 

 corrugated pasteboard. We have re- 

 ceived cases of palms in cold weather, 

 the foliage wrapped in paper, and the 

 spaces between the plants entirely tilled 

 out with short-cut straw. This is light 

 and a good protector against zero 

 weather. 



Large roses, shrubs and trees for 

 short distance shipping are best packed 

 in bales. Damp straw between and 

 around the roots, a layer of dry material 

 over this, and the bale well tied with 

 rope; over this a covering of burlap to 

 make a clean package that will travel 

 with safety and at special rate. 



For freight shipments which are some- 

 times weeks in transit, strong boxes 

 with iron corner straps are preferable, 

 and plenty of moisture at the roots is 

 the most essential necessity in this stylo 

 of packing. 



