48 



The Weekly Florists' Review, 



Dbcbmbeb 17, 1908. 



Vegetable Forcing. 



Vegetable forcers will be interested 

 in the notes on sterilizing with formalin 

 on page 14 of this issue. 



VEGETABLE MARKETS. 



Chicago, Dec. 15. — Cucumbers, $1 to 

 $1.60 doz.; radishes, 30c to 35c doz. 

 bunches; leaf lettuce, 30c to 35c case. 



Boston, Dec. 14. — Cucumbers, $1 to 

 $8 box; tomatoes, 12c to 15c lb.; pars- 

 ley, $1.25 box; lettuce, 50c to 75c box; 

 romaine, 50c to 75c 'doz.; escarolle, 50c 

 to 75c doz.; radishes, $1.25 to $1.50 box; 

 mint, 50c to 75c doz.; mushrooms, $2 to 

 $2.25 4-lb. box. 



New York, Dec. 14. — Cucumbers, 

 fancy, $1.12 to $1.25 doz.; cucumbers, 

 No. 1, $1 to $1.12 doz.; cucumbers, No. 

 2, $1.50 to $4 box; lettuce, $1 to $1.50 

 strap; mushrooms, large, 40c to 45c lb.; 

 mushrooms, small, 25c to 30c lb.; mint, 

 40c doz. bunches; radishes, $2.50 to $3 

 per 100 bunches; tomatoes, 8c to 15c lb. 



LETTUCE WITH FLOWERS. 



Lettuce will grow in almost any hot- 

 house temperature, if well ventilated, but 

 it prefers the carnation temperature. 

 Many florists could make considerably 

 more out of their houses if they had a 

 few boxes of lettuce on hand, ready to 

 transplant whenever it is seen that a 

 bench is to be empty for several weeks 

 before needed for other plants. Even if 

 only a small quantity is grown, it is a 

 pleasure to have it and the grocer will 

 gladly take it and credit it on the ac- 

 count which is getting so big that it 

 would be p pleasure to him to make the 

 credit a? large as possible. 



The <jrrand Eapids Forcing is the fa- 

 vorit.; variety. It should be transplanted 

 ah<>ut eight inches apart. Three or four 

 inches of soil will grow a crop, but a 

 little deeper is better. H. G. 



FUNGUS ON LETTUCE. 



We wish to inquire about a fungus 

 which is ruining some of our lettuce. 

 We have two houses in which it is al- 

 most impossible to get plants to start 

 at all, where the previous crop of large 

 lettuce rotted off in spots at the top of 

 the soil. A local experiment station 

 has advanced the theory that the soil con- 

 tained a disease called the drop, caused 

 by a fungus called sclerotinia, and recom- 

 mends steaming the soil, as a cure. Do 

 you know of such a disease, and what 

 would you recommend to eradicate it? 



We have used Bordeaux mixture and 

 also formalin. Do you think that turn- 

 ing the soil to a depth of ten or twelve 

 inches, leaving the subsoil on the sur- 

 face, would be of any benefit? If any 

 remedy can be applied, please advise. 



H. & C. 



I think that your experiment station 

 has undoubtedly diagnosed the case cor- 

 rectly, and for this disease, as well as 

 for many other diseases, especially in 

 lettuce growing, I think that there is no 

 remedy equal to the steam sterilizing, as 

 recommended by your experiment sta- 

 tion. Sterilizing by steam, properly 

 done, so that the soil is heated to a 

 temperature above 212 degrees for fif- 

 teen or twenty minutes, will not only kill 

 all insects and weed seed, but also all 



spores and germs of all diseases that 

 may be present in the soil. This steam 

 cooking may easily be done by placing 

 rows of common 3-inch drain tile in 

 trenches, running the full length of the 

 bed, with the lines about two feet apart. 

 Cover these with soil, throw old carpets 

 or mats over the beds to keep in the 

 heat, and then turn the steam into the 

 pipe lines by having a box header at 

 the end of the bench, opening out into 

 r;ll the lines of tile„ and attaching the 

 steam feed to this box. 



The Sargent sterilizer, made by 

 George Sargent, Belmont, Mass., is a 

 modern device and a good tool for afl 

 lettuce growers to have. It is like a 

 farm drag in appearance, but made of 

 gas pipe, and the teeth are perforated 

 to permit the steam to escape. It is 

 placed on the bed and pressed down 

 into the soil as far as it will go, then 

 covered over and the steam turned 

 into it. 



When lettuce plants are seen to rot in 

 spots and die, they should immediately 

 be removed and all rotted leaves with 

 them. Then the soil where the plants 

 were removed should be sprinkled with a 

 handful of sulphur, to kill the spores 

 of the disease; otherwise this disease will 

 live on decayed matter on top of the 

 soil, bits of straw and wood or manure, 

 and be on hand to attack your plants 

 again later. 



If you cannot steam the soil this sea- 

 son, it would be well for you to clean 

 house thoroughly and scrape off the top 

 soil thinly, then turn it under deep, as 

 you mention. The n, if you have no other 

 plants in the betlseand^iio other houses 

 connected, fumigate wi^ sulphur by 

 burning it, and you will have a better 

 chance of getting a crop again. 



But bear in mind that a healthy plant 

 is like a healthy person, able to resist at- 

 tacks of disease. It is when the plants 

 are weakened by being too hot or wet, 

 not ventilated enough or wet at night, 

 that they become an easy prey and fall 

 fast under the ever-present disease germs. 

 A dry foliage, especially at night, with 

 plenty of fresh air at all times and a 

 temperature even and cool, means ideal 

 conditions for the lettuce, but not for the 

 diseases. Diseases flourish in conditions 

 not favorable to plants. H. G, 



TRANSPLANTING ASPARAGUS. 



We are desirous of knowing whether 

 or not a person will get better results 

 by planting one-year-old asparagus plants 

 or by planting the two-year-old plants. 

 When is the best time of the year to 

 plant? C. H. L. 



The majority of asparagus growers use 

 the one-year-old plants when planting out 

 a new bed. It seems to be the general 

 opinion that they are better than two- 

 year old plants for transplanting. Why 

 they have this opinion few of them can 

 give any good reason, other than that 

 they have always heard that one-year-old 

 plants are to be preferred or that they 

 have read it somewhere. 



Perhaps some authority made extensive 

 experiments at one time and published 

 the results, which have been rewritten 

 and taken for granted ever since. At 

 any rate, I cannot see anything in it. 

 After several years' experience in grow- 

 ing asparagus and several trials or com- 

 parative tests of one-year-old and two- 

 year-old plants, I am decidedly in favor 

 of the two-year-old plants. 



One of the greatest advantages in us-' 



There are no Dry Spots 



with The Skinner System 

 of Garden and Greenhouse 

 Irrigation. ===^== 



The Skinner Irrigation Co. 



TROY, O. 



Mention The Review when you write. 



Seeds for Forcing 



UTINOSTON'S TRUE BLTTE STRAINS 



I^ettnce- Grand Baplda....i4-lb., 35c; lb., $1.25 



RadUh-Fireball VIb.. 16c; lb., .50 



Radlah-Im. Scarlet Globe. Vlb., 20c; lb., .60 



RadUh— Ro» Gem Vlb., 15c; lb., .50 



Tomato-L's61obe,oz.,35c; i4-lb.,$1.10;lb., 4.00 



Toinato-Ii'HBeaaty,oz.,25c; Vlb.,60c; lb., 1.75 



If to be mailed add 8c per lb. for poBtage. 



LIYING8T0II SEED CO.. kx 104, Colambns, Ohio 



Mention The Review when you write. 



Mushroom Spawn! 



Tobacco Stems 



Freab Tobaoco Btams, Si. 50 for 300-lb. bale. 

 Fresb Mill Track Spavni, $6.00 per 100 lbs. 



W. C. BECKERT, Seedsman, 

 North Side PITTSBURG, PA. 



Mention The Review when you write. 



Watch for our Trade Mark stamped 

 on every brick of Lambert's 



Purs Culture Mushroom Spawn 



Substitution of cheaper grades is 

 thus easily exposed. Fresh sample 

 brick, with illustrated book, mailed 

 postpaid by manufacturers upon re- 

 ceipt of 40 cents in postage. Address 



TradeMark. American Spawn Co., St Paul, Minn. 



Mention The Review when you write. 



COMET TOMATO SEED 



Grown from true stock. Excellent for forcing. 

 50c and $1.00 per pkt. H. M SANDERSON. 

 Ill LINCOLN ST., WALTHAM, MASS. 



Mention The Review when you write. 



ing the older plants, is that in case the 

 season is unfavorable, by being cold 

 and wet or extremely hot and dry, they 

 stand it much better than the smaller 

 plants and there will be fewer vacancies 

 in the field to refill with live plants the 

 next spring. This is an important point 

 in asparagus culture. If you have three 

 acres of asparagus and about a third of 

 the plants are missing, you really have 

 only two acres. 



The time to plant asparagus out is 

 as soon as you can work the soil in the 

 spring — about the same time that the 

 earliest potatoes are planted. Get good, 

 sorted plants, whatever you do. I do not 

 buy of the man who offers them the 

 cheapest, but prefer to pay more for 

 them to the man who can furnish the 

 best. H. G. 



Houghton, Me. — C. F. Strout is build- 

 ing a greenliouse, to be used in forcing 

 lettuce. 



Maitland, Fla. — Albert Buckwell re- 

 ports that orange growers are not get- 

 ting very good prices this season, but 

 everyone seoms to be busy at the packing 

 houses. 



