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The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



NOVBMBEE 25, 1909. 



THE RETAIL 



FLORIST 



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THE BEYER STORE. 



The accompanying illustration is from 

 a photograph taken in the store of the 

 Beyer Floral Co., South Bend, Ind., and 

 serves to give an idea how good a flower 

 town South Bend must be. This store 

 has all the facilities for handling trade 

 that are to be found in the big metro- 

 politan stores, and of course no such 

 facilities would be maintained if there 

 was not the business -to justify them. 



The Beyers, father and sons, are pro- 

 gressive people and good advertisers. 

 They constantly keep up a first-class win- 

 dow display, in fact, leading the mer- 

 chants of their city in this respect, and 

 they believe it is this feature of their 

 work which brings them the large volume 

 of business they handle. 



VALUE OF INSECTICIDES. 



[A paper by Prof. Tennyson D. Jarrls, of the 

 Ontario Agricultural College, Guelpb, Can., read 

 at the twelfth annual convention of the Canadian 

 Horticultural Association, in Toronto, November 

 11, 1909.] 



It is difficult to give any precise idea 

 of the relative values of insecticides, 

 since the kinds of plants and insects to 

 which insecticides are applied, the den- 

 sity of the foliage, the condition of the 

 greenhouses, and perhaps also the cost of 

 the material have to be accurately consid- 

 ered. 



"William Hunt, the florist at the On- 

 tario Agricultural College, at Guelph, 

 and D. Manly Jobbins, of New Bruns- 

 wick, N. J., have devoted a great deal of 

 time and attention to insecticides and 

 their potency, as well as their relative 

 values, and are therefore, to a large de- 

 gree, authorities upon this subject. 



In my discourse before you respecting 

 the various matters to be considered in 

 forming any adequate notion of the rela- 

 tive value of insecticides, it may be neces- 

 sary for the purpose of illustration to 

 give at least the names of the more com- 

 mon and important insects with which 

 we have to deal. It is, however, not my 

 intention to enter into any minute de- 

 scription of them, as their characteristics, 

 their life history and habits are already 

 so well known to you. 



I desire to mention here the white fly 

 as one of the most common as well as, 

 perhaps, the worst pests which infest our 

 greenhouses. It is a small, active insect, 

 easily recognized by its characteristic 

 white and wax-like secretion, which com- 

 pletely covers all the parts of the body. 

 The plant louse, known to the florist as 

 the green fly and the black fly, comes next 

 in the series of pests and is perhaps about 

 as common and as injurious as the white 

 fly. It is a small, soft bodied, green, 

 brown or black insect, with long legs ana 

 long, flexible antennae. The scale insect 

 is usually small and shielded by a scale 

 over it, and is, with but little exception, 

 stationary. The mealy bug, a member 

 of this family, is more mobile, and, with 

 its powdery secretion over its body, makes 

 a marked contrast to the other species of 



these insects. Iviites and thrips may also 

 be mentioned as common greenhouse 

 pests; they are very active and are most 

 numerous on the under sides of the leaves. 

 These being the most common insects 

 upon which our tests for the relative value 

 of insecticides are to be made, we intend 

 to limit the insecticides to those most 

 commonly used by modern florists. 



Tobacco Stems. 



The time and labor required to prepare 

 this material, the refuse from cigar fac- 

 tories, for fumigation, the discomfort 

 in using it, as also the likelihood of in- 

 jury to flowering and tender plants, ren- 

 der this means somewhat undesirable. 

 It is the old and out-of-date remedy, 

 which florists used for want of a better 

 one. The cost in actual outlay also 

 exceeds that of any other remedy of 

 equal potency, being about 5 cents per 

 thousand cubic feet or space for effective 

 fumigation. The difficulty in keeping to- 

 bacco dry and preventing it from getting 

 moldy renders this means of fumigation 

 almost valueless, and few growers on a 

 large scale fumigate now with tobacco. 



Aphis Punk for Fumigation. 



The fumigation with this means, used 

 as directed, gives very effective results 

 for plant lice. The material is brown 

 paper strips saturated with strong solu- 

 tion of nicotine. It is sold in boxes of 

 twelve sheets in a box, retailed at 60 

 cents per box ; by the case containing one 

 dozen boxes, or one gross of sheets in all, 

 $6 to $7 per case. It takes about one 

 box of twelve sheets to fumigate thor- 



oughly a greenhouse of plants infested 

 with green aphis, containing about 30,000 

 cubic feet of space. For black aphis or 

 black fly a ten per cent stronger solution 

 would be necessary; the cost per thou- 

 sand cubic feet of space is about 2 cents. 

 The material is easy of application. It 

 is also less injurious to flowering plants 

 than fumigating with tobacco stems. The 

 cost of storage and labor is compara- 

 tively nil when compared with the cost of 

 tobacco stems. 



There are also several other prepara- 

 tions of nicotine for fumigating purposes, 

 but the one mentioned is most generally 

 used when fumigation with nicotine is 

 used at all. A greenhouse 21x160 feet 

 and eleven feet to the ridge would cost 

 from 50 to 60 cents for enough aphis 

 punk to thoroughly fumigate it. 



Nicotine Solution for Spraying. 



There are several of these preparations 

 made and sold. They are highly concen- 

 trated extracts of tobacco. A pint bot- 

 tle costs from $1.50 to $2, and is diluted 

 400 to 600 parts water to one of the 

 preparation. Mr. Hunt has found it ad- 

 visable to use the 400 to one of the mix- 

 ture in order to give thoroughly satis- 

 factory results for green aphis. For 

 black aphis on chrysanthemums a ten or 

 fifteen per cent stronger solution is nec- 

 essary, especially on old stock plants. 

 The cost of this material is about the 

 same per thousand cubic feet as for 

 aphis punk. The cost of time and labor 

 in preparing the solution and of applica- 

 tion would be slightly more than fumi- 

 gating with aphis punk, but not as 

 heavy an item in this respect as the cost 

 of fumigating with tobacco stems. The 

 cost of nicotine solutions, to be effective, 

 denends much upon the kinds of plants 

 sprayed, the density of foliage, and 

 whether the plants are badly infested 

 with insect pests or not. As a rule, it is 

 generally considered that applications of 

 nicotine solutions are from thirty to 

 fifty per cent cheaper, when considered 

 from all points of view, than fumigating 

 by the materials before mentioned. An- 

 (Continued on pai?e (X).) 



Store of Beyer Floral Co.» South Bend, Ind. 



