114 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



May 16, 1912. 



Vegetable Forcing. 



MANUBE GNATS. 



Many cucumber growers have noted 

 that when they uprooted dying plants 

 the soil and the stalk and roots just 

 below ground were simply alive with 

 tiny white worms. It often is reported 

 that the trouble comes just as the vines 

 are beginning to bear and are nice and 

 healthy, but suddenly they begin wilt- 

 ing. A few die immediately; others hold 

 out several days, but in a short time 

 the entire crop is ruined. Upon pulling 

 up some of the dead plants, great num- 

 bers of tiny worms are found at the 

 roots. 



These worms or grubs are the larvae 

 of the manure gnats, which are found 

 so thickly around stables and piles of 

 fresh manure in hot weather. They lay 

 their eggs in the fresh manure, and 

 when they hatch they are tiny white 

 worms. When fresh stable manure is 

 used to spade into the soil in the green- 

 house benches, which is usually the 



unknown. A grower who has once had 

 them, however, can easily tell when he 

 is getting them again, by the foul smell 

 that is so noticeable upon entering the 

 house. 



Fumigating to kill the old or mature 

 gnats is a waste of time and money; 

 they will die quickly enough in the 

 greenhouse. Spraying the plants would 

 not be of the slightest benefit, because 

 they do not go on the foliage. The 

 only effective method is either to kill 

 the larv8e in the soil before they get 

 to doing much damage or to avoid the 

 use of horse manure. Many prepara- 

 tions have been tried, usually doing 

 more or less injury to the tender roots 

 and not as much injury to the larvae as 

 desired. Any of the nicotine products, 

 diluted, will kill some of the vermin, 

 but the cost is high. 



WHELOHEL'S LETTUCE HOUSES. 



The accompanying illustrations give 

 an idea of the type of up-to-date vege- 

 table growing establishments that are 

 springing up all over the middle west 

 and making good money for their own- 



Lettuce House of W. C. Whelchel, Danville, 111. 



rule in growing cucumbers, the eggs 

 are taken in with the manure, and while 

 in the larval state they do the injury 

 that kills the vines. 



This pest can be avoided by using 

 other kinds of manure, but there is no 

 other manure so good or satisfactory as 

 fresh horse manure for cucumbers, both 

 to warm the soil and to furnish a good, 

 well balanced fertilizer for the crop. 

 Then, too, the damage is usually done 

 before the grower has any warning of 

 the approaching disaster, and when it 

 comes it is too late to save the crop. 

 The eggs are slow to hatch and the 

 larvae slow to mature, so it is seldom 

 that they do any damage for a month 

 after placing the fresh manure in the 

 houses. 



The period of serious destruction is 

 not long. They seem to hatch out, fly 

 against the glass and get stuck wher- 

 ever it is wet, and die off as fast as 

 they hatch out, so that the next genera- 

 tion is not numerous enough to be of 

 serious injury, if any at all. It is be- 

 fore they get the wings that they do 

 the damage. 



The worms resemble the larvae of the 

 striped cucumber beetle, but are 

 smaller. They are often mistaken for 

 these, and thus their identity is often 



ers — although sooner or later most of 

 them get to growing more or less pot 

 plants and cut flowers. This is the 

 establishment of W. C. Whelchel, of 

 Danville, 111. One viey?^ shows the ex- 

 terior, two houses 20x250, with a lean- 

 to, and the other shows the interior of 

 the west house. There is both top and 

 side ventilation. The gutter and eaves 

 are four feet high, on solid concrete. 

 Mr. Whelchel writes that from January 



VEGETABLE PLANTS 



also Sweet Potato Plants 



NOW RKADY 



Fine tomato, cabbage, pepper, egg plant, 

 lettuce, beets. Bemember, I am the party 

 who alone advertised celery plants last 

 season when no one had them. 



Also Stra'wberry FUmts 



WARREN SHINN,WMaury,N. J. 



Mention The Review when you write. 



Vegetable Plants 



CABBAGE 



Wakefield, Succession, All Head, Early and Late- 

 Drumhead, Early Summer, Winnigstadt, Sure- 

 head, etc., at $1.00 per 1000; 10,000 and over, 85a 

 per 1000. 



LETTUCE 



Bigr Boston, Boston Market, Tennis Ball and 

 Grand Rapids, $1.00 per 1000. 



BEET 



Eclipse, Crosby and Egyptian, $1.25 per 1000. 

 Cash with order.* 



R. VINCENT, JR., I SONS CO. 



White Marsh, Md. 



Special to the Trade 



Send for our List of Plants. We make 

 a specialty of growing Golden Sell> 

 blanching^. White Plume and Giant 

 Pascal Celery. 



Egfgf Plants, seed bed and pot-grown. 



Tomatoes, seed bed and pot-grown. 



Peppers, Cabbage, Lettuce, Cauli- 

 flow^er. 



FOX- HALL FARM 



Wholesale Plaat Grawers. R.f.d Ni.2. NORFOLK, VA. 



Mwitloa The ReTlew when yea writs 



Watch for oar Trade Mark stamped 

 on every brick of Lambert's 



Pun Colture Moslirooin Spawn 



SubstitutloD of cheaper erades is 

 . juB easily exposed. FresB sample 

 brick, with illustrated book, mailed 



postpaid by manufacturers upon re- 

 ■ itc' ■" 



^P« ^^ ceipi of 40 cents in postage. Addrest 



Trade Mark. Americui Spawn Co., St Paul, Minn. 



Mention The Review when you write. 



26 to April 20 his sales of lettuce and 

 parsley amounted to practically $1,600. 



Establishment of W. C. Whelchel, Danville, III. 



