12 



The Florists' Review 



JUNB 12, 1013. 



ALIVE WITH THRIPS. 



I[ find that I have a battle on -my 

 hanlds; my old carnations, on solid con- 

 crete beds, are alive with thrips. At 

 least, I presume it is thrips — a small 

 insect, which hops about half an inch 

 or 80 when touched. Today I had a 

 bloom in my field and, to my surprise, 

 I found it also stocked with the pest. 

 I want to put my new crop in the same 

 beds in August or September and I 

 want to know a sure plan to keep them 

 out of the new crop. I can heat enough 

 water in my boiler to scald the beds 

 after they are prepared for the plants. 

 Th^ aisles are concrete and can be 

 washed. J. L. V. 



About the only thing you can do 

 toward exterminating the thrips- in your 

 houses now, with a view to prevent 

 carrying them over to next season, 

 would be to give your houses a strong 

 fumigation with hydrocyanic acid gas 

 when you have removed all the plants. 

 If you can take everything in the way 

 of plants out of the house, there will be 

 no danger of injuring anything and you 

 can then make the gas strong enough 

 to insure the destruction of thie pest. 

 However, that will only be getting rid 

 of those that are in the house at the 

 time and -will in nowise insure you 

 against an attack next season. As you 

 have noticed, thrips are present on the 

 vegetation all around your houses and 

 they will come inside right along unless 

 you fight them off. 



The way to keep free from thrips is 

 to fight them all the time. Start in the 

 fall, as soon as your carnations have 

 begun to grow, and spray regularly 

 with one of the tobacco extracts. Once 

 each week is usually enough to keep the 

 plants clean, but in case you see them 

 getting a start you can increase the 

 number of applications for a time. 

 "Keeping everlastingly at it" should 

 be your watchword when dealing with 

 thrips. A. F. J. B. 



THE SOIL, INDOORS AND OUT. 



Would you advise me to stimulate 

 carnations planted in the field? If so, 

 what kind of fertilizer would you use — 

 nitrate of soda, dried blood or sheep 

 manure, and how much? In case of a 

 need of forcing the blooming, would 

 a fertilizer containing a heavy per- 

 centage of phosphoric acid and potash, 

 in a quickly available form, be bene- 

 ficial? Would it not be preferable to 

 apply a good coat of lime to the soil 

 on solid beds, especially for carnations, 

 and get it well incorporated before 

 planting, instead of making applica- 

 tions of it during the winter? L. K. 



The proper thing to do with your 

 carnation field is to put on what fer- 

 tilizer it needs during the fall and win- 

 ter, so that it will become thoroughly 

 incorporated with the soil before the 

 plants are set out. The soil in the 



field should be jijst fairly rich. If you 

 think the fertilizer is really needed, I 

 would suggest a little sheep manure 

 strewn along close to the plants, but do 

 not expect as good results as you would 

 get from fall or winter manuring. In 

 fact, I would think a long time before 

 applying it. 



Unless your plants are making a rank 

 growth as a result of having too much 

 nitrogen, you cannot do a great deal in 

 the way of forcing bloom by increasing 

 the supply of phosphoric acid. If the 

 plants have a well balanced food sup- 

 ply, you can more safely increase the 

 temperature a trifle afld with better re- 

 sult* than by disturbing the root ac- 

 tion. A slight rise in the temperature 

 will seldom do any harm, providing it 

 is supplemented with a proportionate 

 increase in ventilation. The trouble 

 with most growers is that they want to 

 produce the higher temperature by clos- 

 ing down the ventilators instead of 

 ^pending a little more for coal. 



It is not advisable to apply a large 

 amount of lime to the soil before it is 

 taken into the houses, unless one is 

 certain that it really is needed. When 

 the plants are growing, you can readily 

 see by the growth whether the soil is 

 deficient in lime or not. It is in no- 

 wise detrimental to the plants to apply 

 the lime while they are growing, pro- 

 viding it is applied properly. 



A. F. J. B. 



NEW BUILDINGH3 AT LEEDLE'S. 



The two accompanying illustrations 

 were made from photographs taken on 

 the premises of the Leedle Floral Co., 

 at Springfield, O., in May. One view, 

 taken from the northeast, shows the 

 nearly completed shed extension, 20x45, 

 with a wing 20x20, which will be util- 

 ized for a new office, in order that the 

 old office room may be given over to the 

 girl employees for their exclusive use 

 as a wrap, lunch and rest room. For 

 such departments of greenhouse work as 

 wrapping, labeling, potting, dumping, 

 shifting, moving up, making cuttings, 



etc., girls of an industrious tendency 

 have been found to be efficient helpers, 

 and it is the policy of this company 

 to encourage them by providing ail 

 necessary conveniences for their health, 

 comfort and welfare. 



The hollow building tile shown in the 

 walls has yet to be stuccoed on the out- 

 side and plastered inside, after which 

 these walls will prove not only to be 

 durable but also to be efficient non- 

 conductors of heat and moisture. As 

 may be seen through the doorway, the 

 south walls of the shed from gutter 

 to ceiling are of studding and glass, so 

 that an abundance of light will be ad- 

 mitted. 



The other illustration shows the two 

 new houses, 21x166, in course of erec- 

 tion, as viewed from the southeast. 

 The veteran greenhouse builder, Fred 

 Oates, is seen on the scaffolding. The 

 hollow-tiled south wall, three blocks 

 high, with reinforced pilasters every 

 eight feet, should be noticed; stuccoed 

 on the outside and washed on the in- 

 side with cement, these blocks are ex- 

 pected to prove both warm and dry. 



The gutter posts, finished, and the 

 ridge posts, partly finished, are seen to 

 advantage. These are a somewhat rad- 

 ical departure in greenhouse construc- 

 tion. A piece of 1-inch wrought pipe, 

 threaded at the top end, is properly 

 located and set in a post-hole filled to 

 the ground line with concrete. Over 

 this pipe are placed, in order, one joint 

 each of 6-inch, 5-inch, 4-inch and 3-inch 

 common red drain tiles or field tiles, 

 which are porous and inexpensive. 

 These tiles are then filled with concrete 

 and, after the filling has become set, 

 the post is given one or more brush 

 coats of cement and a final coat of 

 whitewash. By this plan is obtained, 

 at a moderate cost, a post which is sym- 

 metrical, strongest at the point of great- 

 est strain, which is the ground line, 

 and absolutely rust-proof and rot-proof. 

 To form these posts, no molds or cur- 

 ing boards are required; erection can 

 proceed as desired; the surplus water 

 in the concrete mixture is ab- 

 sorbed by the porous tile and a splen- 

 did post is secured, which is a com- 

 bination of iron, concrete and tile. 

 After screwing the gutter bracket to 

 the top of the pipe, the latter is filled 

 with a thin mixture of concrete, so 

 that the iron may be completely im- 

 bedded and protected from corrosion. 



The houses are rapidly nearing com- 

 pletion, so as to be available for hous- 



New Service Building of the Leedle Floral Co^ Springfield, O. 



