May 21, 1008. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



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A Half-Acre of Geraniums at tiie Arthur F. Codiidge Placet Cambridget Mass. 



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THE BANKS OF THE CHARLES. 



Arthur F. Coolidge has a farm of 

 thirty-five acres in the outskirts of^ 

 Cambridge, Mass., along the bank of the 

 Charles river. The property has been 

 in the family for three generations. Mr. 

 Coolidge has eight greenhouses, in which 

 his specialties are carnations, chrysan- 

 themums and violets, but a large part of 

 his extensive business is in bedding 

 plants. The accompanying illustration 

 shows a half-acre of stock plants of 

 geraniums photographed last season. A 

 ten-acre "meadow" of celery forms a 

 part of the farm and supplies the Bos- 

 ton market from July to Christmas. 



DISEASED GERANIUMS. 



/^ T send you by express today a pack- 

 l age containing some geraniums. Please 

 ^--try to tell me what is wrong with them, 

 r\ had the same trouble last year and 

 ^st hundreds of plants. The disease 

 /^does not appear until this time Of the 

 year, when the stock should be ready to 

 sell. It begins at the edges oi; the 

 leaves, as you see by the samples, and 

 continues until the whole plant is yellow. 

 I have tried all kinds of soil, with or 

 without manure, bone meal, etc. Have 

 tried some of them in a warm house and 

 kept some cool. I have also held them 

 on the dry side and some of them wet. 

 I sent some of them to the Department 

 of Agriculture at Washington, D. C^ 

 last year. They never saw or heard of 

 such a thing. I had them at our Flo- 

 rists' Club and they were discussed by 

 the members, to no avail. There is 

 nothing that I have not done or tried 

 as to treatment, or to discover any care- 

 lessness on my part that might cause 

 it. I have been growing geraniums for 

 years and last year the disease made its 



first appearance. When planted out it 

 makes the finest kind of a plant and 

 does not show the disease. I have re- 

 ceived so much 'valuable irformation 

 through the Review and you have helped 

 others so much, that I now call upon you 

 to see what can be done. G. J. L. , 



I have not before seen or known 

 of any such trouble as this correspondent 

 has. It would appear that he has tried 

 about every mode of culture possible to 

 combat the disease and it is difficult to 

 make any suggestions which may help 

 him. The trouble may be a new one, but 

 I think it can be overcome if he will 

 but discard his present stock and start 

 in with new blood. Perhaps this may 

 have been done. If not, I would cer- 

 tainly try it. Desperate diseases re- 

 quire desperate remedies and it will be 

 much better to make a clean start again. 

 It is just possible that the soil may 

 be at fault. Why not send a sample 

 to the chemistry department of the State 

 Agricultural College? Tell them of your 

 trouble and perhaps they can help you. 



The geranium is, generally speaking, 

 one of the easiest of plants to grow 

 and flower, but many growers have no 

 end of trouble with fungoid attacks on 

 the foliage each year. Your plants are 

 differently affected, and I think that 

 either your stock has become debilitated 

 or there is some element in the soil which 

 causes the yellowing of the foliage. I 

 hope that if any other Review readers 

 have been afflicted in the same way as 

 G. J. L., and can suggest any remedy, 

 they will come to his aid. C. W. 



West Chester, Pa. — George M. Huey 

 spent a week recently in Atlantic City, 

 N. J. 



ASSESSMENTS ON STOCK. 



Will you kindly let me know through 

 the Review if there is any taxation on 

 plants in or out of the greenhouse! I 

 noticed some time ago in the Review 

 that plants were not taxable and that 

 ■ assessment could not be enforced on 

 same. Have you any decisions from any 

 courts in regard to this matter 1 We 

 have a smart farmer who happened to 

 be appointed assessor by his farmer 

 friend, and who of course knows it all, 

 and who thinks that I must pay taxes on 

 my stock of plants and business, and I 

 call on your kindness to help me out with 

 your valuable advice? L. A. G. 



Usually an assessor or board of review 

 can be made to take a reasonable view 

 of assessments against greenhouse prop- 

 erty and the growing stock, if the matter 

 is presented to them in the right light 

 and without the use of strong language. 

 If any reader knows of a case in which a 

 court has passed upon the question in- 

 volved, the Review will be pleased to 

 hear of it. 



PLANTING BULBS WITH MACHINE. 



I never have planted a tulip or nar- 

 cissus bulb bottom side up, so do not 

 know what it would do. I have many 

 thousands of bulbs, tulips and narcissi, 

 to plant this coming fall and could fix 

 my potato planter to plant with, if the 

 position in which the bulbs were planted 

 made no difference. Would it do any 

 great harm if the bulbs happened to fall 

 in the furrow bottom up or on their 

 sides? L. S. S. 



The narcissi and tulips will come up, 

 even if planted on their sides or bottom 



