14 



The Florists' Review 



AUOU3T 6, 1914. 



OPEN LElTCl^y^" DEADER^ 



SNAPP'S RELATIONS WANTED. 



I saw a news item from Salina, Kan., 

 in The Keview for July 30, relating to 

 the death of a stranger there and I 

 write you so that you can print this and 

 perhaps locate his relations. The man 's 

 name was Alfred H. Snapp. He was 

 about 65 years of age. Years ago he 

 worked in Chicago, for a florist named 

 Fuller. He was born in New York, near 

 Poughkeepsie, and has a brother and sis- 

 ter living somewhere near there. He 

 had worked for me, in Pine Bluflf, Ark., 

 several times in the last ten years. He 

 had been in bad health for several years 

 and had spells of the blues and would 

 go away, but would come back and tell 

 me he was going to stay till he died. 



We are badly in need of rain. All out- 

 door stock is suffering. We have our 

 carnations planted and the stock looks 

 fine, despite the weather. Last week we 

 opened a store in the new Hotel Pine. 

 We will handle all. cut flowers from 

 there, and plants from the greenhouse. 

 Business is dull, but we hope for an 

 improvement as soon as the weather 

 gets cooler. Last week the thermometer 

 registered 104% degrees in the shade. 



A. A. Harper. 



NOTES ON OUTDOOR PLANTS, 



An inquiry recently appeared in The 

 Review as to why some plants of Am- 

 pelopsis quinquefolia, commonly known 

 as "Virginia creeper or American ivy, do 

 not cling to walls, while others do. 

 There are two varieties of this vine, 

 one having no tendrils, while the other 

 is abundantly supplied with them. I 

 do not know that the plants can be dis- 

 tinguished by appearance of leaf. Am- 

 pelopsis Engelmanni is a seedling from 

 A. quinquefolia, with larger foliage 

 and vigorous habit; it is in every way 

 better than the original form and clings 

 tenaciously. 



Amorphophallus Rivieri, a strange 

 bulb, producing highly ornamental foli- 

 age and a flower of most disgusting 

 odor, I supposed was from the tropics, 

 but the root is perfectly hardy, some- 

 times remaining dormant in the ground 

 a full year and then coming up. 



I have found the spotted calla, Rich- 

 ardia albo-maculata, and also R. Mrs. 

 Roosevelt, entirely hardy in my Indi- 

 ana climate, plants coming up in the 

 following spring from bulbs missed in 

 digging. 



I have not found Tritoma Pfitzeru 

 satisfactorily hardy. When the plants 

 have been left outside, even if mulched, 

 their corms have usually been so in- 

 jured by frost as to give an unsatis- 

 factory growth. 



Gladiolus Chicago White has this sea- 

 son again demonstrated its value. Bulbs 

 planted April 18 began furnishing spikes 

 for shipment July 7, and now, July 28, 

 are practically through blooming. Au- 

 gusta bulbs of the same size, planted 

 alongside at the same date, gave their 

 first spikes Jyly 28. I have grown Chi- 

 cago White for five years. Pink Au- 

 gusta, sent out a few years ago with 



a strong recommendation, has not 

 proved to have any merit outside with 

 us. We have not tried it under glass. 



E. Y. Teas. 



FROM THE OTHER SIDE. 



There are two sides to every question, 

 as some keen philosopher remarked 

 many centuries ago, and it is always of 

 value as well as of interest to know 

 what the other side has to say. In reply 

 to the article headed "Where They 

 Fall," in The Review for July 23, an 

 insecticide manufacturer says: 



"That the insecticide manufacturers 

 are ' being pilloried by the government, ' 

 is truly stated, buir that the manufac- 

 turers bring the troubles upon them- 

 selves is not a complete statement of 

 the case. If you could stand in the 

 manufacturers' shoes for a few hours, 

 you would find that we also are 

 quite up a tree; for if we apply to the 

 insecticide board for advice, they will 

 render us an opinion which is not bind- 

 ing and, if followed, may lead the man- 

 ufacturers into court, as has been the 

 case before. 



"Your suggestion that manufacturers 

 had better lower the claims made on 

 labels, to get within the range of prac- 

 tical manufacturing variations, would 

 not lead us out of the wilderness, for 

 the reason that the insecticide law 

 states specifically that we must name 

 the exact percentage of the active and 

 inert ingredients, giving us the privi- 

 lege of naming the active ingredients 

 contained and the total inert ingredi- 

 ents. Now, should we overestimate the 



active ingredients and then attempt to 

 balance by naming a lesser amount of 

 inert ingredients, we would soon be 

 hauled up for misbranding. 



"The great trouble is that, whereas 

 most manufacturers are observing the 

 spirit of the law, the insecticide board 

 is endeavoring to enforce the law from 

 a technical standpoint. Many products 

 are sold which remain on the shelves 

 for a year or two and there is possible 

 evaporation, but the government will 

 not take this into consideration, al- 

 though, on the other hand, the product 

 may be just as effective as it was when 

 first put out. 



"We have a case on hand at the 

 present time with one of our products, 

 which the government, on analyzing, 

 claims to have found to contain .25 per 

 cent less of an ingredient than the label 

 calls for. This product, before it was 

 shipped out, was analyzed by no less 

 than four chemists, one of them being 

 one of the leading analytical chemists 

 in New York city. These chemists are 

 prepared to testify that their analyses 

 were correct. We have submitted our 

 side to the government, but, of course, 

 do not know what the outcome will be. 



' ' What is necessary is that the insec- 

 ticide manufacturers get together for 

 their own protection, though there seems 

 to be no disposition in that direction. 

 There is no question that many of the 

 cases which have gone by default, had 

 they been tried out in the courts, would 

 have resulted in defeat for the govern- 

 ment. All will agree that manufacturers 

 breaking the laws should be prosecuted, 

 but persecuting them for the sake of 

 making a showing in one or another de- 

 partment of the government is certainly 

 not the intent of the law. 



"The fact that non-vult is pleaded 

 and small fines are paid is due to the 

 enormous expenses attached to contest- 

 ing government suits. Only the other 

 day we were discussing the pure food 

 and insecticide problems with a firm of 

 leading manufacturing chemists in this 

 state and they informed us that they 

 were interested in fighting Dr. Wiley on 

 one of the 'pure food' cases, which was 

 finally decided in the higher courts in 

 favor of the manufacturers, but that it 

 cost them over $200,000 to contest the 

 case, experts being brought from abroad 

 to bear out the contentions of the manu- 

 facturers. Of course, the manufactur- 

 ing concern referred to was an ex- 

 tremely wealthy one. Yet, although the 

 manufacturing chemists we refer to are 

 a big concern, they were compelled to 

 withdraw an article of their own from 

 the market simply because they were 

 not prepared to spend the money that 

 would be involved in a lawsuit with 

 the government, and that is the position 

 today of insecticide manufacturers also. 



"You will probably agree with me 

 from your own experience that practi- 

 cal experiments on the part of growers 

 have disproved and are constantly dis- 

 proving much of the expert advice com- 

 ing from the Agricultural Department; 

 but the department is content to rest 

 on its expert theories and is seldom 

 found to be .disposed to place much faith 

 in demonstrations by practical men. 



When Charles D. Ball Got Snapshot. 



New Britain, Conn.— Luther Bur 

 bank's comprehensive volume on his 

 methods and discoveries is dedicated to 

 Carl Lorenzen, for many years in the 

 trade here and widely noted for his 

 botanical researches. 



