Ill Horticulture. 65 



Forcing-Houses. 



This small group of cheap, mostly frame, houses has grown up 

 gradually in response to the urgent needs of the Department and 

 the energy of the former head. In the beginning, they were 

 used for the growing of winter vegetables and the forcing" of flowers. 

 In this connection, the bulletins of the Department of Horticulture 

 bear excellent testimony to the efficiency of the buildings and the 

 industry of those who had charge of them. These are now used 

 almost exclusively in meetmg the needs of the graduate students pur- 

 suing advanced work in horticulture and in providing facilities for 

 laboratory exercises in greenhouse management and nursery and 

 orchard practice for the beginner. This they do very inadequately. 

 The older houses being of wood and in use fifteen or sixteen years, 

 are now in a bad condition, and the annual bill for repairs grows 

 larger each year. The heating plant is not only inadequate to the 

 requirements made upon it, but the limit of growth has been passed. 

 The houses themselves are unsuited for the purposes to which they 

 are put and utterly unfit to represent the modern glass house and 

 equipment of an up-to-date college of agriculture. 



Allow me to summarize briefly some of the more urgent require- 

 ments of the Department of Horticulture for the carrying on of in- 

 struction and the conducting of investigations. 



IMMEDIATE AND PRESSING NEEDS OF THE DEPART- 

 MENT OF HORTICULTURE. 



I. A glass house equipment comprising (a) a winter garden for 

 laboratory use especially designed to meet the needs of the class in 

 elementary horticulture and the students in the special winter- 

 courses. 



(b) A glass house especially designed for research work for 

 graduate students. The facilities for work of this kind in our pres- 

 ent group are utterly inadequate. 



(c) A glass house for the forcing of tree fruits in which speci- 

 mens of the citrus fruits miay also be cultivated for the use of stu- 

 dents interested in sub-tropical horticulture. 



(d) A series of ranges for the growing of the leading com- 

 mercial crops of flowers and vegetables. We are badly in need of 

 houses where crops of carnations, roses, chrysanthemums, violets 

 and stove plants may be handled in the manner practiced by the 

 commercial florist. 



Such an equipment is urgently needed at once. The houses should 

 be modern in all respects, should be of the best material, and an 

 equipment of this kind will cost not less than $25,000. 



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