12 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



July 21, 1910. 



BEMOVINa CEMENT FBOM TILE. 



Is there anything that will loosen 

 Portland cement after it becomes set 

 and dried hard? We have a tile chim- 

 ney which we intend to tear down, and 

 we wish to remove the cement without 

 injury to the tile. C L. W. 



Strong solutions of hydrochloride and 

 sulphuric acid have slight effect upon 

 concrete or cement sand mortar. Under 

 the circumstances, it will be impossible 

 for you, perhaps, to remove the mortar 

 joint from the tile with chisels, as the 

 'joints are not easily accessible. If this 

 is the case, I can see no way of apply- 

 ing acid to the joints in such a manner 

 that it will be effective. 



' If the tile chimney can be taken 

 down and the joints broken with a 

 chisel or by some other method, the 

 cement mortar can possibly be cleaned 

 from the tile with a commercial solu- 

 tion of either of the above named acids 

 and a wire brush. If, however, the 

 oemont mortar is first-class, I have no 

 doubt but what the cost of breaking the 

 joints and cleaning the tile will be 

 muca more than that of new tile. 



ONE'S OWN MISTAKES. 



If an express company gives a receipt 

 for a shipment to be forwarded to a 

 specified destination and the package is 

 in error marked to another place and so 

 forwarded, are the shippers under obli- 

 gations to pay the extra charge, or 

 should they pay only the tariff to the 

 point specified in the receipt? If the 

 same thing occurs and the package con- 

 tains articles of a perishable nature, is 

 the express company under legal obliga- 

 tions to pay shipper for loss sustained! 



TLe shipper is bound to pay express 

 charges in this case to the place to 

 which the direction on the package indi- 

 cated that it was to be carried. If the 

 articles were of a perishable nature, and 

 were lost by reason of the mistake, the 

 shipper must bear the loss. The mistake 

 was made by the shipper, and it is 

 proper that he should bear all resulting 

 loss. He gave the direction that the 

 company put upon the receipt, and he 

 nlso marked the package, and any mis- 

 take that was made was his mistake in 

 the first place. It might have been pos- 

 sible for the company to discover it 

 more promptly, by extra vigilance, but 

 a carrier is not bound to assume that 

 the shipper will make mistakes of this 

 Kind, and to be specially upon the look- 

 out for them. — Journal of Commerce. 



TAX ON GROWING STOCK. 



I write you in regard to a little mat- 

 ter I saw in The Review a few months 

 ago. I have mislaid the copy and am 

 unable to find the facts. I was notified 

 a few days ago to appear before the 

 city board of tax review to answer why 

 I had not paid a tax on my greenhouse 

 stock. I am under the impression that 

 the article I saw in The Review stated 

 it was tried in court and that we were 

 not to pay a tax on our growing stock. 

 Could you at once write me where I 

 can find out the facts of the matter t 

 Any information you can give me will 

 be "thankfully received. R. B. 



The Review has published a consider- 

 able number of articles regarding taxa- 



tion of florists' growing crops. Laws 

 vary in the different states, so that con- 

 ditions are not similar, but in general 

 the trouble arises through the efforts 

 of local taxing officials to raise revenue; 

 in their eagerness they go beyond the 

 limits of the state laws under which 

 they work. 



There are only two things to be done: 

 You should go to your taxing body and 

 make a strong but good-natured state- 

 ment of the facts; endeavor to show 

 the taxing authorities that the florists' 

 growing crops in the benches are in the 

 same class with farmers' growing crops, 

 which are not taxable. If you do not 

 succeed in getting the assessment ad- 

 justed to your satisfaction, the only 

 other thing to do is to hire a lawyer, 



Tbe Editor Is pleased 

 \ehen a Reader 

 presents his Ideas 

 on any subject treated In 



As experience Is tbe best 

 teacber, so do ^re 

 learn fastest by an 

 exciianse of experiences. 

 Many valuable points 

 are brouebt out 

 by discussion. 



Good penmanship, spellinsf and 

 grammar, though desirable, are not 

 necessary. Write as you would talk 

 when doing your best. 



WX SHA.LL, BE GLAD 

 TO HEAR FROM TOU 



but usually taxing bodies are reason- 

 able and it is possible to show them 

 that such stock as carnation and rose 

 plants growing in the bench have no 

 taxable value. 



CINCH BUGS ON ASTERS. 



A fly, one of which you will find in 

 the enclosed envelope, stings or taps 

 the stems from a half-inch to five inches 

 under the bud of the asters. The buds 

 then wither. This insect is of a species 

 somewhere between a mosquito and a 

 common house-fly in size and appear- 

 ance. Can you tell us what to do to 

 kill these pests? D. & W. 



The cinch bug, which annually does 

 a great deal of damage to chrysanthe- 

 mums when grown outdoors, also to 

 Pyrethrum uliginosum, asters and other 

 members of the compositae family, is a 

 hard pest to fight. Growers of chrys- 

 anthemums in pots outdoors sometimes 

 use a framework of mosquito screen- 

 ing, with which to enclose their plants. 

 Poisons are of no avail. Soapy and 

 nicotine solutions seem equally futile. 

 Spraying with some bitter tasting 

 liquid, such as is obtained by soaking 

 quassia chips in water, is the best 

 remedy I have tried, but even this is 

 not a complete success. I am inclined 

 to think that by using kerosene emul- 



sion, or Whale Oil soap in conjunction 

 with the quassia chip extract that the 

 pests may be tempted to give the plants 

 a wide berth. Perhaps some other read 

 ers can give us some helpful sugges 

 tidns on this subject. C. W. 



MOTES IN GREENHOUSE. 



At the present time I am troubled 

 by a kind of tiny moth. They invade 

 my greenhouses by the hundreds and 

 seem to damage chiefly chrysanthe 

 mums, heliotropes and cinerarias. I 

 have never been troubled by them be- 

 fore, and I would be glad to know of 

 some way to get rid of them. I have 

 used nicotine fumigation and spraying, 

 but of no avail. I am enclosing some 

 of the moths and caterpillars so you 

 can see what they are. T. B. 



This particular moth I have not seen 

 before. It is much smaller than the 

 common white butterfly, so destructive 

 sometimes on chrysanthemums, mig- 

 nonette, cinerarias, etc., and of a brown 

 color. Fumigation; if persisted in, should 

 account for many of the moths them- 

 selves. Try fly papers also to catch 

 them. Spraying with some poison is 

 necessary to kill the larvae, which do 

 the real damage. Paris green is liable 

 to burn the leaves. Arsenate of lead 

 will rather disfigure them. Try white 

 hellebore at the rate of one pound to 

 fifteen or twenty gallons of water, di- 

 recting it below the leaves, or it can be 

 applied in powder form through a pair 

 of sulphur bellows, damping over the 

 foliage first to make it adhere. If you 

 keep up the fumigation, selecting the 

 coolest nights for this operation, and 

 use the hellebore, you should speedily 

 get the upper hand of j'our foes . 



C. W. 



PHLOX AND HOLLYHOCKS. 



I wish to grow a number of perennial 

 phlox and hollyhocks to bloom next 

 summer. Can I sow seed now and ob- 

 tain blooming plants by July 1, 1911, in 

 this Arkansas climate? Is it better to 

 sow the seed in greenhouses or in 

 frames, and do the seedlings require any 

 shade? G. T. D. 



Hollyhock seed should be sown now in 

 order to get strong plants for blooming 

 with you about July 1 next year. The 

 seed can be sown either outdoors or in 

 a coldframe. I prefer the latter, as the 

 seed can be watered, insuring better 

 germination. Shading until the seed 

 lings are up is an advantage. 



You cannot now get good plants of 

 perennial phlox from either seed or cut- 

 tings. The best method of propagation 

 is from cuttings taken when the plant? 

 commence to grow in spring. Root these 

 in sand, as you would chrysanthemums. 

 Plant out in nursery rows and you will 

 get fine plants for selling in fall or 

 spring. You can also increase stock by 

 dividing old clumps, but cuttings give 

 better results. Your best plan now 

 would be to buy some field-grown plants 

 of the phlox this fall. They are better 

 planted in October rather than in the 

 spring. C. W. 



Fitzgerald, Ga. — Joel Thomas, accom- 

 panied by a little grandson, recently 

 made a trip to Geneseo, 111., to visit 

 friends and relativ-es there. Mr. 

 Thomas was in business in Geneseo 

 fifteen years ago. 



