Mat 0, 1909. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



ripen up. A gradual lessening of the 

 water supply after early October will 

 help to firm up the wood. It will be nec- 

 essary to start plants in a cool house at 

 Christmas, as Easter comes three months 



later. 



In summer free syringing is necessary 

 to keep down red spider. When being 

 forced, mildew, usually due to cold 

 draughts, must be guarded against. 



Many growers prefer to plant their 

 ramblers outdoors, and pot them up 

 about the last of October. The bulk of 

 the plants seen at Easter are grown in 

 this way, and are often of excellent qual- 

 ity. It is not possible, however, to get 

 as fine trusses on these as on plants es- 

 tablished in pots. Neither are such plants 

 so well adapted for early forcing. With 

 such an early Easter as we will have in 

 1910, the men with the pot-grown stock 

 would seem to have a decided advantage. 



W. N. Craig. 



PROBLEMS OF ROSE GROWERS. 



[This paper was prepared by Prof. L. C. 

 Corbett, of Washington, D. C, for the Buf- 

 falo meeting of the American Bose Society, in 

 March, 1909, but waa not read.] 



Heat, light, water and soil are the big 

 four with which the plant grower, be he 

 farmer, gardener or florist, is concerned. 

 In nature all of these factors are more 

 or less in the class of variables. The 

 fanner and gardener, working in the 

 open and dependent upon natural sources 

 for heat, light, moisture and soil, are 

 playing at a game of chance. The two 

 factors that it is within their power to 

 modify are moisture and soil. By irriga- 

 tion, the water content of the soil can 

 be regulated. By the judicious use of 

 fertilizers and manure, the food supply 

 of the plant can be modified. Aside 

 from these two alternatives, the farmers 

 and gardeners are totally dependent upon 

 nature's kind provisions. 



The florist carries the cultivation of 

 plants one step farther from the field of 

 chance by safeguarding the temperature 

 factor. The florist may or should be able 

 to control three of the determining 

 factors in plant growth, namely, heat, 

 moisture and soil. His variable should 

 be confined to the light factor alone. 



A Natural Law Ignored. 



Our modem greenhouses have been 

 well planned so as to cut out as little 

 light as possible, by the use of light 

 framework and large glass. The great 

 weakness in our present scheme of green- 

 house construction lies in the total disre- 

 gard of the laws of reflection and refrac- 

 tion. The fact that a glass roof can be 

 so constructed that it will allow a large 

 percentage of light and heat rays of the 

 sun to penetrate the house at certain 

 hours of the day, and will reflect or 

 throw o& a large percentage of the same 

 rays at other hours of the day, has, it 

 would appear, been given altogether too 

 little consideration, both by florists, 

 physiologists and physicists. This is one 

 of the respects in which practice is far 

 behind. The available knowledge on this 

 phase of construction seems to have been 

 almost entirely ignored by the practical 

 florist and greenhouse builder. Much 

 thought is spent in designing gutters, 

 sashbars and ventilating apparatus, 

 while the pitch of the roof and the 

 direction of the ridge, factors which di- 

 rectly measure the value of the houses 

 are entirely ignored. 



ControQing the Li^ht. 



It is therefore evident that the florist 

 may, in a measure, at least, influence the 



Rote Tattseodichon as an Easter Plant. 



light factor. While he cannot increase 

 or decrease the aotual hours of sunshine, 

 he can, by properly planning his houses, 

 afford his plants the maximum benefit 

 of the light provided in nature. Re- 

 searches which have been conducted 

 along this line clearly indicate the value 

 of light as a factor in plant growth. 

 Prolonging the light period by artificial 

 means, as has been demonstrated by 

 Bailey, Eane, the writer and others, de- 

 cidedly hastens growth. Should we not, 

 then, give this factor the full attention 

 its importance deserves? 



The temperature and moisture require- 

 ments of plants are given far more con- 

 sideration than light by florists, but it is 

 surprising to note the great lack of 

 available general information upon so 

 simple a matter as properly providing 

 for the requisite amount of radiation in 

 a greenhouse for a particular purpose in 

 a definite locality. Too often this im- 

 portant matter is left to the local 

 plumber, who has no idea of the problem 

 involved, or how to solve it. Yet heat 

 is the greatest charge against the grow- 

 ing account. 



The Water Supply. 



Moisture is the coin of the realm with 

 the gardener and the florist; both deal 

 in products the chief constituent of which 

 is water. A pure and adequate water 

 supply, intelligently used, is a determin- 

 ing factor in garden and floral under- 

 takings. 



Now we come to the soil, an absolute 

 essential to the success of every com- 

 mercial agricultural enterprise, and the 

 source of the livelihood and wealth of 

 the major portion of the earth's inhabi- 

 tants; yet what shall we say of it, since 

 it is so complex f If we consider its deri- 

 vation, we find the rocks yielding to the 

 action of frost, water and air to supply 

 the mineral matter. Vegetation springs 

 up to ripen and decay, and thus con- 

 tributes humus, another factor as im- 

 portant as the mineral. The decomposi* 

 tion of organic matter in the soil sets to 

 work other forces which are no less im- 

 portant than the primary constituents 

 themselves. The combination of the or- 

 ganic and the mineral substances creates 

 a condition which makes it possible for 

 many low forms of animal and plant life 

 to exist in this medium we call soU. 

 These low forms are some of them help- 

 ful and some of them hindrances to the 

 plant grower. 



A Bacteriological Puzzle. 



The introduction of this host of ten- 

 ants complicates things and renders what 

 was formerly thought to be simply a 

 chemical problem, a very intricate com- 

 bined chemical and bacteriological puz- 

 zle. Some aspects of this puzzle are yet 

 so new and diflScult that no prediction 

 dare be made at this time regarding their 

 importance to agriculture. 



Enough has been determined, however, 

 to prove that an important, lead has been 



