The Weekly Horists' Review. 



y»*'. 



Februaby 27, 1908. 



DUTY ON ROSE CUTTINGS. 



Rose cuttings that have been rooted 

 in sand, but have never in fact been in 

 soil, are not dutiable as "rose plants" 

 under paragraph 252, tariff act of 1897, 

 but as ' ' cuttings of plants commonly 

 known as nursery or greenhouse stock," 

 under the same paragraph. 



The decision is final, for it is that of 

 the United States Court of Appeals for 

 the Second District of New York, to 

 which the Secretary of the Treasury took 

 it on appeal from the Circuit Court of 

 the United States for the Western Dis- 

 trict of New York. 



The case grew out of an importation 

 of rooted tea rose cuttings by the South 

 Park Floral Co., New Castle, Ind., al- 

 though it was in the name of the Ameri- 

 can Express Co. The cuttings came 

 from the Dale Estate, in Canada, and 

 the collector at Buffalo assessed duty at 

 the rate of 2iy<2 cents each, as rose plants. 

 The importers protested and the Board 

 of General Appraisers upheld them, or- 

 dering that duty be assessed at twenty- 

 five per cent ad valorem, as provided for 

 "cuttings of greenhouse stock." The 

 Government held that the board had 

 erred in so deciding and directed that an 

 appeal be taken to the Circuit Court of 

 the United States. This court upheld the 

 importer and the Board of General Ap- 

 praisers, but the Government was not yet 

 satisfied and took the case one step high- 

 er, to the Court ^f Appeals, which de- 

 cided, February 11, that rooted cuttings 

 that have never been in soil are not ' * rose 

 plants" and are to be admitted at the 

 lower rate of duty. The Government 

 loses its case. 



ANTHRACNOSE. 



We are sending you under separate 

 cover a sample of some roses which are 

 giving us trouble. These roses are in 

 solid beds; new houses running north 

 and south. The soil is a fine, sandy 

 loam and is considered excellent farm 

 land. The soil was mixed with a mod- 

 erate quantity of well rotted manure at 

 the time of planting, which was about 

 the middle of July, as the construction 

 of the houses would not permit earlier 

 planting. Considering the time of plant- 

 ing, the roses have done fairly well ex- 

 cept that this trouble was beginning to 

 show itself in November a little, and 

 has gradually grown worse. While it 

 usually shows itself on plants that seem 

 to have been less sturdy than the rest, 

 it has taken several that were making 



fine, large, strong growth. Perhaps the 

 first sign would be a drooping of the 

 flower bud, and then in a few days the 

 plant is ruined. Others show at first 

 one branch as diseased, with the bad 

 leaves; then usually the rest of the plant 

 follows, and right by it may be a fine, 

 healthy looking plant that does not show 

 an imperfect leaf. This helps fo puzzle 

 us, as it seems to us if it were bad wa- 

 ter or soil it would more nearly affect 

 all alike. Bride, Maid, Chatenay and 

 Killarney all show it more or less, but 

 our Richmond so far are entirely free. 

 As I stated, the soil is sandy and with 

 an open subsoil, and it would be impos- 

 sible, almost, to overwater them, even if 

 we were not careful. Carnations grown 

 in solid beds in the same soil have done 

 splendidly, and so have sweet peas. Pot 

 plants in the same soil have done fairly 

 well; such as have done indifferently 

 we can, we think, trace to other reasons 

 than soil. I have written at length so 

 that you may have as nearly as possible 

 all the facts in the case. W. H. C. 



The specimen sent was in bad condi- 

 tion when it reached me, but from your 

 explicit and concise letter, and from 

 what I could detect in the specimen, it 

 looks as if the plants were suffering 

 from rose anthracnose, a most trouble- 

 some disease and difficult to eradicate. 



These symptoms as described by you 

 arc the true symptoms of this trouble, 

 and where the disease has got such a 

 hold it is the most profitable way to 

 throw the stock out and replant with 

 clean, vigorous stock. 



The cause of this disease is difficult to 

 determine, but it usually attacks plants 

 of low vitality — plants which have been 

 propagated from weak stock. It is also 

 encouraged and fostered by damp atmos- 

 phere and deficient ventilation, although 

 I have seen bad cases of it in houses 

 which were perfect in these respects. 



I would advise not. to propagate from 

 such stock. RiBES. 



AN OLD-FASHIONED ROSE. 



What is the name of a common, old- 

 fashioned yellow rose that grows about 

 four feet high, is very thorny on the 

 young shoots and bears a profusion of 

 flowers, which, though considerably 

 doubled, have a great many stamens 

 and carpels? It blooms about the end 

 of May in a latitude of 40 degrees. 

 It is somewhat inclined to sucker. 



J. L. D. 



Persian Yellow is probably the variety 

 you have reference to. Austrian Yel- 

 low and Harrison's Yellow are some- 

 what similar sorts. All are hardy. 



C. W. 



ROSY MORN PETUNIA. . 



While great progress has been made in 

 improving varieties of bedding plants, 

 the list of plants suitable for bedding 

 has not increased much, and on grounds 

 where there is no gardener who has 

 charge of the flower beds, only such 

 plants can be recommended as will, with 

 even little care, be effective. Petunias, 

 as a rule, are not ideal bedders. The 

 variety Snowball is quite attractive in 

 mass planting, as a white. Howard 's Star 

 can be used to great advantage for 

 veranda-boxes or rustic hanging baskets. 

 But many of the double sorts have colors 

 which cannot be used with any other 

 flowers, and for bedding, they are, on 

 account of their straggly growth, not to 

 be recommended. Rosy Morn, however, 

 is a most valuable bedder. It has a 

 small flower of a beautiful rose-pink 

 color, with a white throat, is a constant 

 bloomer and of a rather dwarf habit. 

 It comes true from seed, which, if sown 

 about March 1, will produce, if pinched 

 back several times, nice, bushy stock 

 by May. Whenever its color is desired, 

 and a plant is wanted which will, with 

 but little attention, bloom until frost, 

 it should be recommended. F. B. 



EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



[A synopsis of a paper by A. C. Beal, read 

 before the Illinois State Florists' Association, 

 at Springfield, February 19, 1908.] 



With the ever increasing interest and 

 support of the farmers in the state ex- 

 periment stations, their work has been 

 broadened. It would be difficult at the 

 present time to find any agricultural in- 

 terest which does not receive some recog- 

 nition on the part of some experiment 

 station. 



Floriculture is one, of the interests 

 which more recently has received a lit- 

 tle attention from the stations. It seems 

 incredible that an industry representing 

 so large an investment of capital, and 

 with an annual product of so great value, 

 has not received more recognition. Ac- 

 cording to the census of 1900, the amount 

 of capital invested in floriculture was 

 $52,462,419, and the wholesale value of 

 the product is given at $18,422,522. 

 Since 1900 the florists' business has de- 

 veloped wonderfully and the investment 

 is not far from $100,000,000 for the 

 whole country. What interest of such 

 magnitude has been given less recogni- 

 tion? 



In this connection it is well to bear in 

 mind that when the stations were 

 founded the farmer was the one to whom 

 those in charge of the work looked for 

 support and whom they sought to bene- 

 fit. Most men, and the farmers least 

 of all, know little about plant growing 

 under glass, and they generally have a 

 sort of contempt for the man whose 

 operations are confined to a small area. 

 The farmers might be surprised to learn 

 that there are florists in Illinois who 

 grow under glass more rose or carnation 

 plants than there are hills of corn on 

 fifty acres of land. If they had any ade- 

 quate conception of the amount of han- 

 dling, pruning, tying, etc., to care for 

 this number of plants as compared with 

 cultivating the same number of hills of 

 corn, they would have a better opinion 

 of the florists* business. 



There has been some work done for 

 florists by the experiment stations. Of 

 those publications dealing with flowers, 

 except a few bulletins from Cornell, prac- 

 tically all treat of insects and diseases. 

 [Continued on pave 23.] 



