10 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



August 5, 1909. 



the cyanide in packages and drop paper 

 and all into the acid mixture. Start at 

 one end of the house, drop in the pack- 

 age, and 80 on to the opposite end. Lose 

 no time over the work, as the fumes are 

 deadly. Lock the door and let no one on 

 any consideration enter the house that 

 night, or results will likely be serious if 

 not fatal. 



I have tried the foregoing strength for 

 bug and spider and found it effectual. 

 The acid is much heavier than the water 

 and for aphis and other pests I prefer to 

 weigh an equal amount of each. In the 

 case of spider and bug, however, the fore- 

 going amounts have been found effectual. 



If you have any plants with tender 

 foliage in your house, you must remove 

 them, as they will not stand this fumiga- 

 tion during hot weather. Please remem- 

 ber that hydrocyanic acid gas is deadly 



to human beings, as well as insect pests, 

 and if you decide to use it exercise great 

 care and do not expose yourself to the 

 fumes. 



If you are afraid to use gas and want 

 to try fiome other f iimigant, the most ef- 

 fective one is nicotine extract evaporated 

 over wood alcohol lamps. More than one 

 dose of this is needed to kill spider. Once 

 you have had some experience with gas, 

 you will be able to decide on just what 

 doses will kill out your various pests by 

 a little experimenting and you will find it 

 the most effective and simple of all fumi- 

 gants. C. W. 



LIME VATER FOR WORMS. 



Is there any better thing for the de- 

 struction of earthworms than lime? I 

 suppose that water can be made to take 



up only a certain amount of lime in ^i^ 

 tion, and would ask if this lime water 

 would hurt any of the common green 

 house plants that might be treated with 

 it several times for the destruction of 

 worms. Such plants, for instance as 

 Begonia Gloire de Lorraine, cyclamen 

 Farleyense and asparagus? C. A. D. ' 



Lime water is the simplest and cl 

 est method of driving earthworms from 

 pots or tubs. Its moderate use will not 

 injure any of the plants you have named 

 One application should be suflScient for 

 a considerable time. There are a num- 

 ber of worm eradicators on the market. 

 One named the Twentieth Century Worm 

 Eradicator, manufactured by the Bon 

 Arbor Chemical Co., Paterson, N. J., jj 

 specially good and inexpensive. C. W. 



SEASONABLE SUGGESTIONS. 



Feeding. 



Many inquiries begin to reach me 

 every year about this time regarding 

 feeding the plants. "What is the best 

 thing to use?" "How often should it 

 be applied?" "How much should be 

 given at each application?" and many 

 similar requests arrive in almost every 

 mail. Some growers seem to think that 

 there is a set rule by which one can al- 

 ways feed the plants at a given time, in 

 a certain manner, and be sure of the re- 

 sult, and they will offer to pay for the 

 knowledge that they are sure I possess. 

 Every plant grower knows that there is 

 no short cut to knowledge of this descrip- 

 tion, but that it is acquired only by 

 personal study and experience, and an 

 intimate knowledge of the local condi- 

 tions governing the case in each instance. 



Broadly speaking, the plants should 

 not need any additional feeding for from 

 eight to ten weeks after planting, if the 

 soil was properly prepared in the first 

 place. Stock that was benched in May 

 will now be benefited by a little feeding, 

 but later planted stock does not yet need 

 anything. In the case of pot plants, do 

 not feed them till the soil is full of 

 roots and the plant is potbound, as gar- 

 deners call it. The mum is a gross 

 feeder, and will take a great deal of 

 nourishment under proper conditions, but 

 liquid fertilizer applied to a bench or pot 

 does far more harm than good to the 

 plants, if the roots are not in a condition 

 to take it up. 



A Light Mulch. 



I believe in lightly mulching the beds 

 with rotten manure, first sprinkling some 

 bone flour on the surface and scratching 

 up the soil. This mulch will keep the 

 plants from drying out too rapidly, and 

 it will bring the roots to the surface to 

 get the benefit of the bone. On no ac- 

 count should fresh manure be used, as it 



is liable to burn the leaves and all the 

 feeding roots and do much more harm 

 than good. Manure that is decomposed 

 enough to run readily through a soil pul- 

 verizer is about right. Some growers 

 tlink that a mulch induces the plants to 

 sucker more than they otherwise would, 

 but, even if this is so, the good it does 

 more than counterbalances the harm. 



As to liquid fertilizers to use, most 

 experienced growers have their own for- 

 mulas, which experience has taught them 

 are best fitted for their soil and condi- 

 tions. The chemicals most generally used 

 are nitrate of soda, sulphate of ammonia 

 and nitrate of potash. 



A Good Fertilizer. 



The nitrate of potash is the best, ac- 

 cording to my experience, and the nitrate 

 of soda the most dangerous. I say dan- 

 gerous, because I have seen it do more 

 harm than good on more than one occa- 

 sion. The potash, combining, as it does, 

 both the nitrogen and potash, has given 

 me the best results, though a plant can 

 be fed with the sulphate of ammonia 

 later, with safety. The proper propor- 

 tion is a 4-inch pot to a 50-gallon barrel 

 of water. This is safe, and may be ap- 

 plied every ten days, if thought neces- 

 sary. 



Latterly I have been using a patent 

 fertilizer that a chemist worked out, 

 partly from my experiments, and with 

 this I no longer buy any other chemical. 



Liquid solutions made from natural 

 manures are good, used alternately with 

 chemicals, cow and sheep manure being 

 tlie most favored. 



Some growers think that • plants are 

 better not to have any feed until the bud 

 is formed. This is a fallacy. Feed your 

 plants now, by all means, if they have 

 been planted long enough to need it, -and 

 they will produce larger and better buds 

 than they would if left alone. I would 

 rather feed my plants more now and less 

 after the bud is taken, because then the 



plant has a chance to take all the excess 

 food out of the soil before the bud has 

 swelled too much, and there is less dan 

 ger of the flower damping when it is 

 finishing. CHARLES H. TOTTY. 



LEAF SPOT ON MUMS. 



I herewith enclose a few leaves of 

 chrysanthemums. What is the trouble, 

 and its cause and remedy? It seems to 

 work in sections and on individual 

 plants throughout the house. It begins 

 with light yellow dots and continues 

 until the entire leaf is dried up on the 

 stem. It is entirely on the older parts 

 of the plants. W. K. 



The trouble is known generally as leaf- 

 spot, and is due in a measure to close 

 planting, which prevents the sun and air 

 from having proper access to the licnch 

 and the lower leaves of the plants. It 

 does no great harm to the plants to ha^s 

 them lose a few of the lower leaves, but 

 if the trouble gets serious it shoull be 

 taken in hand. Pick off all the affected ' 

 leaves and then spray the under side of 

 the lower leaves of the plants with either 

 Bordeaux mixture or potassium sulihide 

 (liver of sulphur). 



After spraying your plants with this 

 solution, they should be kept on the dry 

 side as regards syringing. Be caret al tj) 

 see that they are always dry by nigli fallj, 

 and that on dull days no syringing "i all 

 is done. By this means no serious i i^m* 

 should result, as the losing of the I'Wer 

 leaves is a more or less natural con<i tion 

 in the life of the plant, as the stem !,'et3 

 hard and woody, and it is merely ''^S' 

 tened by the action of the fungoid dis- 

 ease, which always appears in the C' titer 

 of the bench where the sun cannot j't^^e- 

 trate. C. H. Tottv. 



BLACK FLY ON MUMS. 



Kindly inform me as tb- the best «'»y 

 of exterminating the black fly <"* 



