-20 - ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



they have in Philadelphia. For instance, the majority of commer- 

 cial florists growing flowers to be disposed of among the retailers in 

 the Quaker City have their own salesmen, and some of the proprie- 

 tors even sell their own product, delivering the flowers at the differ- 

 ent stores daily; whereas, in both Boston and New York wholesale 

 markets are established where the retailers buy early in the morning 

 what they expect they may need during the day. 



It is only a few years ago that nearly every florist built his own 

 greenhouses. He was a carpenter, steam fitter, painter, glazier and 

 florist in combination, and the materials used in the course of con- 

 struction were of the very cheapest possible character. He tried to 

 cover as much ground with a given piece of glass as possible, and in 

 many cases it was questionable economy, though, as a rule, in those 

 days it was the only way open for an ambitious young man, with 

 very little cash capital, to start into business for himself. 



This is certainly a commercial age, and the rapid development of 

 the business of flower growing for sale has been enormous, almost 

 beyond belief during the past few years. In the ages to come, when 

 an adequate history of the development of commercial floriculture 

 shall be written, it may be made to appear as though it had almost 

 sprung up in a night. 



It seems only the other day that a greenhouse one hundred feet 

 long was considered the correct and extreme length practicable in 

 which to grow plants and flowers, but a week or two ago in the flori- 

 cultural trade papers there were illustrated articles published, giv- 

 ing plans, etc., of two rose houses in course of erection in Natick, 

 Mass., seven hundred feet long. It would seem that now surely 

 the limit had been reached, but when we realized that in comparison 

 with the days (only a short time ago) when greenhouses were heated 

 by what is known as the old-fashioned flue system — which means 

 that a fire was built in a furnace at one end of the greenhouse, and 

 terra cotta or glazed drain pipes of suitable size, or brick flues, were 

 used to conduct the heat and smpke to the other end, and that heat 

 sufficient would sometimes be radiated in transit, or en route, so to 

 speak, to keep out frost and incidentally to grow plants and flowers 

 for sale — ^that to-day we hardly know what is in store for us, or 

 what to expect in the future, especially when we consider how elec- 

 tricity has displaced the horse in methods of transportation on the 

 streets of cities and towns and upon the country roads; then, why 

 may not electricity be applied in some of the routine and laborious 

 work necessary in a large establishment where flowers are the 

 staple articles grown? 



The primitive method of heating plant-growing structures above 

 referred to was only once removed, as it were, from the window 

 garden of the dwelling-house. 



