74 
t3l)e Slower (Brower 
July, 1918 
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Z5l)e Slower (Brower 
I PUBLISHED MONTHLY ON THE FIRST OF THE MONTH BY j 
MADISON COOPER, CALCIUM, N.Y. j 
FOR BOTH AMATEUR AND PROFESSIONAL FLOWER GROWERS 
I Subscription Price : OUR MOTTO: Canadian and Foreign i 
1 $1.00 per year. Special favors to none, and a Subscription Price 1 
I 3 years for $2.00. square deal to all. $1.25 per year. | 
Growers are invited to contribute articles or notes over their own 
signatures, but the Editor reserves the right to reject anything which 
in his judgment is not conducive to the general welfare of the business. 
Copj/vi f/ht litis hi/ Madison. Cooper 
The contents of THE FLOWER GROWER, formerly " The Modern Gladiolus 
Grower” are covered by general copyright. Permission is given to editors to use not 
more than one-third of any article providing proper credit is given at the beginning rr 
end of such quotation, as follows: “Front THE FLO WER GRO WER, Calcium, N. Y ” 
Special permission necessary for reprinting illustrations, long extracts or articles entire. 
Entered as second class matter March 31, 1914, at post office at 
Calcium, N.Y., under act of March 3, 1879. 
Vol. V July, 1918 No. 7 
" He who sows the ground with care and diligence acquires a 
greater stock of religious merit than he could gain by the 
repetition of ten thousand prayers.”— Zoroaster. 
Knife or Scissors for Cutting Flowers ? 
Considerable has been written on the subject of cutting 
flowers for development in water in the house or for ship- 
ping purposes and so far as we are aware, authorities all 
agree that a knife should be used and a slanting cut made- 
The Editor, perhaps foolishly, fell into the habit of cutting 
with scissors, using a large 6 inch pair of blunt ended scis- 
sors similar to those used by drygoods clerks. He has been 
criticised from time to time for doing this and is willing to 
admit that he is wrong. To bring out the points at issue, 
we are pleased to print herewith from a letter on this sub- 
ject written us by H. E. Meader, of Dover, N. H. Mr. 
Meader has so carefully analyzed the subject that we believe 
that all flower lovers will be interested in what he has to 
say. Mr. Meader writes as follows : 
As the Gladiolus spike has so fleshy a stem, no doubt it 
would take up water enough to blossom out to the tip any- 
way even if cut with scissors or broken off. However, the 
florists say on hard stemmed flowers it is a benefit to slit 
the stem up an inch or so, splitting into halves a short dis- 
tance from the cut end. 
I have had trouble with extra long stemmed Roses and 
also Chrysanthemums, when placed in a warm room, the 
flower and perhaps several inches of the stem next to it 
would droop. Probably the heat would evaporate the mois- 
ture, or rather the flower gave off same faster than its capil- 
lary system could supply it. I have tried splitting the stems 
which exposed a larger surface to the water and remedied 
conditions almost immediately. 
I have noticed that cut Gladioli if left standing in water 
without changing or cutting the stems, in the course of a 
week, the flowers blooming along the spike as usual would 
commence to droop as they reached the end of the spike 
and the last few would be pale in color, below normal size 
and the stem very weak and flabby. The end of the stem 
when taken from the water would be spongy, dark in color 
from the impurities sucked up with the water, and probably 
this helped to clog the tiny canals which supply the flowers 
with nourishment. 
Last year I had a pail of cut Glads which sat around a 
week and were all in a lopped over, faded-out condition so 
thought I would see if they would recuperate if fixed up a 
little. I cut about two-thirds of the stem off and changed 
the water and they immediately straightened out and came 
back wonderfully. 
All this gave me the impression that it is of prime im- 
portance to keep cutting a little off the stems for best re- 
sults and the cleaner the cut, the better the cut end would 
perform its functions. I suppose the most sensible thing to 
do would be to dump the blooms anyway after they are 
nearly all out but some varieties we like to hang on to until 
the last flower has faded. 
Note by the Editor: 
Theoretically there is no doubt but what a knife cut is 
in every way superior to a shear cut, but it is the Editor’s 
impression that it would be difficult to tell the difference 
between a knife cut and a shear cut made at the same slant 
across the stem. Anyway, the 6 in. pocket shears are such 
a handy thing to slip into the top vest pocket, and are always 
ready for action, that compared with a knife they are su- 
perior in every practical way. However, we are not advo- 
cating the scissors to those who like the knife, and, in fact, 
do not advocate the scissors anyway. We simply fell into 
this habit through familiarity with pocket scissors and 
carrying them at all times for use for many different pur- 
poses. Commercial growers doubtless all use a knife and 
probably many of the amateurs, but scissors seem to serve 
the purpose pretty well for us and we do not expect to 
change even though we know they are not the right tool to 
use. 
Division of Prize Money at Flower Shows. 
Those who offer prizes at the flower shows should think 
over the subject carefully. We are decidedly of the opinion 
that prize money should not be given chiefly to the first 
prize winner. Suppose, for instance, that $10 is available 
as prize money in any particular class. Why not give $5 of 
it to the first man, $3 to the second man and $2 to the third 
man ? Surely it is unfair to give the man making the best 
show all of the prize money or pretty nearly all of it. It 
should be honor enough to win a first prize and usually the 
first prize winner would be content to take one-third or one' 
half the money. We think that a fair division of prize 
money would be in the proportion of 4, 3 and 2. In other 
words, if $9 were available, give $4 of it to the first man, 
$3 to the second man and $2 to the third man. 
Furthermore, if it were more common to offer a first, 
second and third prize (or possibly a fourth prize where 
there is considerable money available) it would tend to bring 
out a much larger show, as exhibitors would know that if 
they could not win first place, they would surely have a 
chance of winning second, third or fourth place. 
Think this over you who offer prizes and put yourself in 
the place of the fellow who is exhibiting. 
Destroy the Common Barberry. 
The Department of Agriculture has issued an order that 
all the common Barberry be destroyed. It has been dem- 
onstrated, we understand, that this particular form of the 
Barberry, known as Berberis vulgaris, harbors a disease 
deadly to grain crops and especially to wheat. In many 
places the Barberry furnishes a wonderful bit of color for 
the autumn landscape which will be greatly missed, but we 
cannot afford under present war conditions to harbor any- 
thing which is destructive to wheat. It should be noted 
that the common Barberry is not the Japanese Barberry 
(Berberis Thunbergii). The latter is altogether harmless, 
and one horticultural writer states that the common Bar- 
berry is pro-German while the Japanese Barberry is 100% 
American. 
