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34 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



Apbil 9, 1908. 



tumn growing season is shortened owing 

 to indififerent weather. 



Coupled with all this is the fact that 

 owing to the peculiar British method 

 of government, tons of cheap flowers, 

 carnations included, are placed upon the 

 market, which are produced in the more 

 favorable climate of southern Europe. 

 This has the tendency to lower the price 

 of carnation blooms generally, while it 

 causes the second and lower grades to 

 be a drug upon the market. 



When all these points are weighed up 

 by a business man, he will see that it 

 cannot be done, and the men who are 

 priding themselves upon selling young 

 carnations at American prices would be 

 doing the flower more good and widen- 

 ing its market by selling a higher grade 

 of stock. Montague C. Allwood. 



BUYING NEW VARIETIES. 



Mr. Osborn to Mr. Baur. 



Although familiar for some time with 

 Mr. Baur's method of buying new varie- 

 ties, I was pleased to read his views 

 again in the Review of March 19. 



Strange as it may appear, our experi- 

 ences have been similar with each other's 

 method. In short, we have swapped, and 

 while it is possible to point out the short- 

 comings of any method, I do not propose 

 to criticise Mr. Baur 's at this time, ex- 

 cept in so far as it may become neces- 

 sary in order to support the claims of 

 my own. 



Taking into account the small as well 

 as the large grower, the up-to-date en- 

 thusiast, the average general florist and 

 numerous others, each working under 

 widely different circumstances, it will be 

 apparent that no one method will apply 

 to all. 



Room for Different Systems. 



I believe there is a necessity for both 

 methods and, having operated under his 



and other growers' visits to different es- 

 tablishments, it will be seen that these 

 visits diflfer materially from those I had 

 reference to in my first reply. There is 

 a vast difference between a trip over the 

 plant of the originator or the dissemi- 

 nator of a certain variety and one a sea- 

 son later through the establishment of 

 an up-to-date, unbiased grower, who has 

 invested in the variety and whose returns 

 come through sale of blooms instead of 

 cuttings, and the same might be said of 

 reports which may be circulated previous 

 to a variety's introduction. 



Another Way of Improving Stock. 



The idea of not replacing varieties un- 

 til they show deterioration might not be 

 considered progressive from the stand- 

 point of the enthusiast or specialist, but 

 in the case of a small grower or the av- 

 erage general florist who has but limited 

 space in which to grow carnations, it 

 would hardly be just to regard him as 

 retrogressive because he did not buy six 

 or eight new varieties every year. I may 

 be a crank on propagation, but it is my 

 firm belief that the way is open to ma- 

 terially improve our stock by careful se- 

 lection in propagating, and that the 

 grower who embraces the opportunity 

 shows as great a degree of progression as 

 does he who is constantly buying new in- 

 troductions. 



When we bought in small trial lots 

 there were too few from which we cared 

 to take cuttings. There being more or 

 less loss in the field and in housing, and 

 among the number left only a certain 

 percentage proving desirable to increase, 

 we were on the whole seriously handi- 

 capped. 



General Florists and Small Growers. 



The general florist does not, as a rule, 

 care to take upon himself the extra detail 

 wliich the trial of several new varieties 

 each year would entail, and the small 



House 3^^x360 of Sweet Peas at Wm. Sim's, CUftondale, Mass. 



plan, I can see where in some cases Mr. 

 Baur's method might work to good ad- 

 vantage. Consequently I am disposed to 

 be more indulgent with his views than he 

 appears to be with mine. However, for 

 me to say that his method is by far the 

 better would be to declare against my 

 convictions. 



In reading Mr. Baur's story of his 



grower would have a great variety of 

 everything, but not much of anything in 

 particular. 



Manifestly the purchase of 250 cut- 

 tings each of two or three sorts, under 

 my plan — namely, one of the current 

 year's introduction, the balance from 

 those sent out one year or perhaps two 

 years previously — cannot be character- 



ized as plunging, and I do not take it 

 that Mr. Baur intended to so call it. 



His illustration of a man growing ob- 

 solete varieties today is obviously over- 

 drawn, as reference to my former reply 

 will show. 



The idea of letting someone else try 

 varieties for you did not originate with 

 me, however close its relation to my 

 method may seem. In making the state- 

 ment that such a disposition prevailed, I 

 merely made note of an existing condi- 

 tion. Whether it is practical or not is 

 largely a matter of opinioh. 



For fear the discussion will grow 

 wearisome, I will not, at this time, go 

 into history, much as could be told to 

 further substantiate my claims. By all 

 means let us hear from others; we both 

 extend a cordial invitation to take a 

 hand, Geo. S. Osborn. 



BEGONIA J?OR NAME. 



I enclose some leaves of a begonia and 

 shall be pleased to have you state the 

 name of the variety. J. C. 



The begonia is a- form of semper- 

 florens, probably the red flowered va- 

 riety, Begonia semperflorens gigantea 

 rosea. C. W. 



BURNED BONE. 



Will you please advise me by return 

 mail whether or not burned ground bone 

 that has been used for steel hardening 

 purposes has any or a reasonable amount 

 of fertilizing qualities contained there- 

 in, and if so, to what extent? 



A. G. M. 



Prof. I. O. Haskins, of the fertilizer 

 branch of the Massachusetts Agricultu- 

 ral College, Amherst, Mass., reports as 

 follows on the value of thi^,t)one for fer- 

 tilizer : . 



Regarding the value of burned bone, 

 which has been used for steel harden- 

 ing, for fertilizing purposes, would say 

 that it 'possesses little or no value in the 

 untreated state. It furnishes a valuable 

 source of phosphoric acid, when treated 

 with sulphuric acid, which renders the 

 phosphoric acid available. 



The phosphoric acid in this class of 

 materials is in tricalcic form, and being 

 unassociated with organic compounds, 

 which were destroyed in the process of 

 burning, it becomes quite as insoluble as 

 South Carolina rock phosphate. This 

 material (bone) has as high as thirty- 

 seven per cent total phosphoric acid. 



SMILAX IN RAISED BENCHES. 



Our smilax is grown in raised benches 

 with heating pipes running below, al- 

 though at this time of the year we have 

 practically no artificial heat. The ends 

 of the leaves are turning white. It can- 

 not be on account of dryne.ss, as the soil 

 is never really dry. It did this once 

 before this winter, but it was when the 

 pipes were hot, and we blamed it to the 

 soil drving out too much at the bottom. 



F. P. F. C. 



I have not grown smilax in raised 

 benches for many years and cannot rec- 

 ommend its culture in this way. A bench 

 with heating pipes below it is about 

 the worst condition for smilax. You 

 will never get as fine strings, nor so 

 many of them, under the raised bench 

 plan as in solid beds. I think it proba- 

 ble that the soil was dry, even although 

 it may have looked moist on the surface. 

 I think dryness may be responsible for 



