Evening star., 1898-01-04
THEY ARE INFLICTED
A Peculiar Disease Which Has Killed the
Eiolets.
scarcity Of Flower. Around Christina,
T.ne-s.ua5gf,n. =, tn. Disease.
OF Flowers.

tablishment of Appointment florist in the
city to purchase some violets for a young
lady. The young man in question was
not in very afiiuent circumstances, but he
thought he had enough money with which
to purchase at least a hundred of the frae-
rant little blooms.
II suppose it will be about 81 for 100 of
the choicest fowers?'' he said to the florist.
You will have to add just a dollar to
that amount II you want to make the
young lady present OF really choice vio-
let's" the dealer told him.
In explanation the florist said that vio-
lets are not more than one-fifth as plenti-
full this year as last.
Last Christmas 1 handled about 10000
violets, he told the visitor to the place.
whereas this year l could only handle
2,Ooo; The reason? Well. the violets could
not be obtained
Then he went on to say that this has
been one OF the poorest seasons for vio-
lets known almost since the demand had
year Is greater and greater. This season
the disease known among cultivators as
the spot has done deadly damage to the
violets. In consequence cuItiyators who
last year shipped away thousands of the
blue, fragrant little blooms this year have
not shipped more than hundreds. 1t is
not only viOlets. however, which have been
scarce, as the weather conditions have
been such as to preclude the possibility of
raising other kinds of flowers in the usual
quantities. Carnations have also been
afflicted with disease which has rendered
them exceedingly scarce in some sections.
Roses have not been omitted from the list
of plants which have suffered from disease.
If histories were Kept OF plants and flow
ers, as they are of human beings, this year
would be designated as one in which 1.-The
plague" had visited them.
Experimenting with the diseases of flow
ers is no new thing at the Department of
1sx,fc 90 III
pathology is devoted especially to this
Hot houses over there are used expressly
for this purpose. where Profs. Woods,
Smith and Dorset frequently experiment
their phases In addition to this. Profs.
Galloway and Dorsett, who live on ad-
joining lots at Garrett Park. have erected
out of their private means hot houses.
where they each year raise four or five
thousand violets for the purpose of ex-
perimenttng with them.
Prof. Dorset was seen at the Desart-
ment of Agriculture this morning in ref
erence to the disease affecting the violets
He said to he Star reporter:
There are probably about dozen dis
eases which visit the violet kind. OF these
the spot is the one most known and most
dreaded by the growers. The first thing
noticed Is slight spot on one of the
leaves, probably no bigger than q pin head
This developes until the entire leaf is con-
Suned The disease is contagious and /
have seen whole house of the yiolets de-
strCyed by the spot inside of a week The
leaves are the life of the plant, and when
they become affected the plant is vitallv
affected. The spot Is a fungus growth
consisting of a number of Spores We
have not as yet found any successful cure
for the disease 1T is sometimes called
smallpox by the growers, but SPOT ia
the most common name
we have found in our experiments that
the only successful way to raise violets is
to get the most hardy kinds. Growers
should no more think Of raising yioIets
from the shoots off unhealthy plants than
breeders would think of breeding animals
from ones which have beer afflicted with
disease. Great care is needed to get the
most healthy ones. '-r.
THE weather. conditions just before
Christmas miugated greatly against the
producing of large numbers of flowers
around Washington. There was scarcely
sunshIny day in three weeks, and flowers
in hot houses must have the sun or they
will not thrive. Experiments have been
made with electric lights on different tiow-
ers and vegetables. The arc lights have
been Kept burning through the night and
the experiments have been found successful
as far as some specimens were concerned
and unsuccessful with others. Lettuce, for
instance has been found to mature a week
earlier when the electric lights have been
kept burning at night than the plants which
have not had the light. There are no facil-
tiles at the Department Of Agriculture for
experimenting with the electric light.
"A comparatively new disease has beer.
discovered lately among the rose tribe, and
only among one or two varieties of this. l
was shown by prominent florist some
specimens of rose plants which had become
fully developed and which had withered on
the stems Experiments will be conducted
to find cut what caused this and to
seek a preventive, If possible