The Weekly Florists' Review* 



Mabch 12. 1908. 



general form, in their mouth parts and 

 feeding habits. There is a pupal stage 

 of about a week in greenhouses, during 

 which the thrips are inactive and feed 

 but little if at all. During this period 

 they seek a hiding place and emerge as 

 adult insects. 



It is impossible, therefore, to destroy 

 the eggs, and the rapidity with which 

 they .hatch means that whatever method 

 of destruction is employed should be re- 

 peated at very short intervals of time. 



The undersigned would be glad to re- 

 ceive specimens of thrips causing damage 

 to any greenhouse crop, or to render any 

 service he can consistently with his du- 

 ties in the thrips experiments now in 

 progress. Mail specimens to Urbana, 111. 



A. C. Beal. 



LILIUM CANDIDUM FOR EASTER. 



I should like to make an inquiry in 

 regard to Lilium candidum. "We have in 

 a frame outdoors, covered with leaves, 

 a lot of fine bulbs of Lilium candidum 

 and, on uncovering today, find that they 

 have started, are about three inches in 

 height and appear to be in extra fine 

 condition. Could these be brought into 



bloom for Easter by putting in pots and 

 placing in a house of about 50 degrees 

 of temperature! G. A. K. 



Your lilies will be much too late for 

 Easter. To have them in flower by April 

 19, buds should now be visible. Such 

 plants in a night temperature of 50 

 to 52 degrees will be in season. "We 

 would advise growing your plants along 

 for Memorial day trade. There is al- 

 ways an active demand for such flowers 

 at that time. In a temperature of 50 

 degrees they would flower by the end of 

 Mav. "W. N. C. 



DRACAENA BRONZE BEAUTY. 



The illustration on page 7 shows 

 a specimen plant of Dracaena Bronze 

 Beauty, which is one of the varieties 

 raised at the establishment of "W. A. 

 Manda, South Orange, N. J. It is the 

 result of a cross of Dracaena Imperialis 

 and D. Youngii. It is a strong grower, 

 the leaves oval, or oblong, of leathery 

 texture, bronze, in color, the centers of 

 matured plants showing strong pink col- 

 oration. Mr. Manda says it has proven 

 to be an exceedingly easy grower and 

 remarkably durable as a house plant. 



SOIL AND 

 THEJLORIST 



4% 



A Little Understood Subject. 



The subject which has been assigned 

 for our consideration this evening is 

 the commonplace, low, downtrodden sub- 

 ject of the soil; so commonplace, indeed, 

 that no one stops to think of its origin, 

 its mission, or the work that is going 

 on constantly within it. Like many 

 other commonplace, omnipresent subjects, 

 the soil elicits from us no thought, no 

 consideration and no attention, except 

 that which we are compelled to bestow 

 upon it in order that we may wrest from 

 it a livelihood. If we stop for a mo- 

 ment and consider the origin of the soil 

 we find that it is the refined portion of 

 the earth 's crust, the earth 's crust be- 

 ing made up of rock, of earth and of 

 soil, and the most important of these is 

 the soil, because it is the soil alone 

 which furnishes a congenial habitat for 

 plants, upon which all the higher ani- 

 mals, including man, must depend for 

 Bustenance. The soil, therefore, is the 

 most important factor with which agri- 

 culture has to deal, and is, at the same 

 time, the one factor most often over- 

 looked and the one about which we know 

 least. While chemists have attempted to 

 analyze it, physicists to separate it, and 

 philosophers to philosophize about it, we 

 know comparatively little of its intricate 

 relations to the plants living upon it. 

 If we were to stop and trace the rela- 

 tions which the various forces in nature 

 bear to the formation of the soil we 

 might spend all the time allotted to us 

 on this phase of the subject alone. If 

 "we were to consider the action of frost. 



A paper by L. C. Corbett, of the United 

 States Department of Agricnlture, read before 

 the New York Florists' Club, March 9, 1908. 



of heat, of moisture, and of plant and 

 animal life which inhabit the soil, upon 

 its formation, its character and its fer- 

 tility, we should have a subject requir- 

 ing many sessions to discuss. 



Natural Soils Unsuitable. 



In general farming operations the 

 character of the soil must, in a great 

 measure, be taken as it is found in na- 

 ture. The farmer must make the best 

 use of it that is possible under the en- 

 vironment in which he finds himself. 

 "With the florist, however, conditions are 

 very different. The florist is working 

 under an artificial climate, and usually 

 with an artificial soil. It is more eco- 

 nomical in general for florists to com- 

 bine the primary elements entering into 

 the composition of ?oil for the purpose 

 of producing the required composition 

 for the special crop in hand, rather than 

 to attempt to import from localities pos- 

 sessing such soil the amount required 

 for his use. In other words, the florist 

 is interested in the manufacture of as 

 nearly as possible an ideal soil for the 

 particular crop with which he is deal- 

 ing. He attempts, through the construc- 

 tion of frames, hotbeds and greenhouses, 

 to produce artificial conditions which 

 shall be congenial, and as nearly ideal as 

 his knowledge will permit, for the house 

 and the rearing of the plants with which 

 he is dealing. So also with the soil. 

 It is his intention, in placing soil in 

 the greenhouse for a particular crop, to 

 make such combination of loam, sand, 

 peat and humus as will give ideal physi- 

 cal conditions for the roots of the par- 

 ticular crop, and will at the same time 

 produce an immediately available supply 

 of plant food of the character demanded 



by the particular crop. "While at the 

 present time these matters are largely 

 matters of routine and thumb rule, yet 

 experience has taught us that certain 

 proportions of leaf-mold, of sand and 

 of loam are best for carnations, while 

 a slightly different proportion is best 

 for roses, and so on through the list. 

 Some plants require soils which are loose 

 and peaty in^ character, while others re- 

 quire those which are compact and some- 

 what clayey. These variations have 

 never been taken up and studied sys- 

 tematically by chemists or physicists. In 

 fact, it is my belief that here is a very 

 important field for investigation. The 

 only work which has been done along 

 this line, which I can bring to your at- 

 tention, was that carried out by Gallo- 

 way, in the study of lettuce soils, in 

 which a careful physical examination was 

 made of the different types upon which 

 lettuce was most productive. 



Cemetery of the Ages. 



Since soil is the loose conglomeration 

 of broken-down and disintegrated rock, 

 of decayed plant and animal matter, some 

 one has aptly paraphrased it as being 

 "the cemetery of the ages and the res- 

 urrection of life. ' ' Surely, when we look 

 upon a house of carnations or roses and 

 observe the delicious perfume, exquisite 

 color and the perfect shape of the flower 

 buds, we believe the poet was correct 

 when he made the statement just quoted, 

 that the soil is the resurrection of life. 



As has been noted, natural soils do 

 not answer the purpose of the florist and 

 the greenhouse man. "We cannot afford 

 to take nature's product, because in few 

 instances are we able to secure an ideal 

 combination, strange as it may seem, for 

 the particular crop with which we are 

 dealing. Nature builds not for special 

 purposes, but for general purposes. 

 Therefore, when we specialize in the cul- 

 tivation of a particular crop and place 

 it under extreme conditions, where great 

 profit must be derived, it requires other 

 factors than those found in nature ; hence 

 the necessity for the florist studying the 

 composition of soils adapted to different 

 crops. 



Mechanical Condition of Soil. 



In general agricultural parlance, as 

 well as in floricultural literature, fre- 

 quent allusion is made to soil fertility, 

 to plant food, to fertilizers and methods 

 of fertilization; but food supply is only 

 one factor in which we are interested in 

 the making of soils for greenhouse use. 

 In field practice, as well as under glass, 

 too little attention is given to ideal me- 

 chanical conditions of the soil. The me- 

 chanical condition of the soil determines, 

 first, the water-holding capacity of the 

 soil. The water-holding capacity of the 

 soil, which is dependent upon the mechan- 

 ical condition, determines the availability 

 of the plant food which the soil contains, 

 provided, of course, that the plaat food 

 is there in suflScient quantity. It will be 

 seen, then, that the question of the use 

 and the availability of plant food is de- 

 pendent upon the mechanical condition 

 primarily, rather than upon any other 

 single factor. 



Other important considerations in con- 

 nection with our greenhouse soils are 

 freedom from weeds, freedom from det- 

 rimental insects and freedom from germs 

 of disease. By special methods in the 

 handling and preparation of greenhouse 

 soils, these requirements and difficulties 



