AUGUST 19, 1900. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



47 



breeding are being studied by J. B. Nor- 

 ton, who has already presented one or two 

 i.apers before this society bearing on his 

 v\ork and the results he has secured. 

 Mr. Oliver is doing considerable breed- 

 ing work with roses, chrysanthemums, 

 nansies, gladioli and sunflowers. 



I may say that one of the roses dis- 

 rovered by Mr. Meyer has flowered. It 

 i-as double yellow flowers and has the 

 -eeuliar distinction of being the flrst 

 ,;f all the roses to bloom in the spring. 

 Vhis and several other species introduced 

 from China and elsewhere are being used 

 •ly Mr. Oliver in his breeding work and 

 ilready some promising seedlings for 

 outdoor planting have been secured, 

 notably a cross between the new double 

 • ellow rose and the white rugosa. 



Mr. Meyer, while in China, was in- 

 structed to secure the wild forms of 

 chrysanthemums from which our culti- 

 vated varieties have sprung. He suc- 

 ceeded in securing a variety vfith white 

 or rosy-white flowers, and also a yellow 

 variety, both from the very cold regions 

 of north China. These wild forms Mr. 

 Oliver is crossing with some of our best 

 hardy cultivated varieties in order to 

 secure a thoroughly hardy race for out- 

 door culture in the north. Some prom- 

 ising seedlings have already been secured. 

 Mr. Oliver has also begun some interest- 

 ing work with pansies, crossing a summer 

 blooming species secured from Australia 

 with other varieties. This Australian va- 

 riety blooms abundantly during our hot- 

 test summers, provided it gets suflScient 

 moisture. We look to obtaining some 

 interesting results along this line. We 

 need a productive annual sunflower for 

 summer cutting with larger and better 

 shaped flowers than we have in the com- 

 mon varieties. This Mr. Oliver has se- 

 cured by crossing, the resulting progeny 

 having large and well developed flowers 

 with long stems, well adapted for cut- 

 ting. 



In connection with the plant breeding 

 and improvement work an interesting line 

 of study has been conducted for some 

 time by Prof. L. C. Corbett, having to 

 do with the comparative merits of blind 

 and flowering wood for propagation pur- 

 poses in rose growing. 



Studies of Diseases. 



The Bureau of Plant Industry is con- 

 tinuing its investigations of the diseases 

 affecting crops under glass. The re- 

 sults of this work, as is well known to 

 the florists' trade, have been published 

 from time to time in the bulletins of 

 the department and elsewhere. The re- 

 sults of studies of wet stem-rot of car- 

 nations, dry stem-rot, microsporium spot, 

 bacterial spot and other diseases of this 

 crop have been set forth from time to 

 time, so that there is little new to be 

 added regarding the manner in which 

 the various diseases work, or the methods 

 of preventing the same. Wet stem-rot 

 has proved quite destructive in a number 

 of sections of the country recently and, 

 as already pointed out, the fungus which 

 causes this disease lives in the soil on de- 

 caying organic matter, especially if the 

 soil happens to be poor in lime. 



The crown gall disease of roses and 

 chrysanthemums has received some atten- 

 tion from our pathologists. The cause 

 of the disease has been discovered to be 

 a bacterial trouble. We have also found 

 out that it is spread by cuttings, which 

 frequently become infected in the cut- 

 ting bench. Some evidence has also been 

 secnred showing that certain varieties 

 are not so susceptible to this trouble as 

 others. 



Special Work With Carnations. 



I have briefly reviewed the foregoing 

 questions more as an introduction than as 

 an attempt to give you detailed infor- 

 mation as to work actually accomplished, 

 or in progress. My particular object at 



this time is to set before you certain 

 results which have been secured in con- 

 nection with our work on carnations and 

 the growing of bulbs in the United 

 States. 



At one of the former meetings of this 

 society we presented some of the results 

 secured in the matter of feeding the car- 

 nation. Soon after this work was com- 

 pleted the houses in which we grow car- 

 nations were modified for the purpose 

 of obtaining light on the relative effect 

 of growing the crop on raised benches, 

 as compared with solid beds. The rapid 

 increase in the price of lumber has made 

 it essential and necessary that florists 

 should take advantage of all methods or 

 practices which will reduce the cost of 

 production without interfering with the 

 size and vigor of the plants or crop 

 grown therefrom. 



The experimental carnation houses of 

 the department are built on the ridge and 

 furrow plan and run north and south. 

 There are no separating partitions, the 

 house as a whole being forty-eight feet 

 wide and 133 feet long. For experi- 

 mental purposes the house is divided 

 into seven beds, which, when filled, will 

 hold about 6,000 plants. It was planned 

 in the experiment about to be described 

 to test the effect of growing the crop 

 on raised wooden benches, constructed 

 in the usual way, with wooden supports; 

 on tile bottom benches with iron sap- 

 ports, and in solid beds with concrete 

 walls. 



Styles of Construction. 



The wooden ^ supports of the raised 

 wooden benches are made of 3x4 Georgia 

 pine and placed four feet apart. The 

 benches themselves are made of 1x12 

 white pine boards sixteen feet long. The 

 benches are about three feet high. 



The tile bench has a frame constructed 

 of 1^4 -inch iron pipe, the supports being 

 set five feet apart. The legs of the sup- 



Solid Beds Used in Tests by the Depatrtment of Agriculture. 



(FiUed with, first, cinders, 12 in.: secoDd, straw. 2 in.; and last, corapogt, 4-iD. Walls 18 in. high, 4-in. thick.) 



