The Weekly Florists' Review. 



461 



old Portia, a product of 1S84, is still iu 

 the ring. 



C. W. Ward, you know, recently esti- 

 mated that the florists in this country 

 grow, altogether, 5,000,000 carnation 

 plants each year, producing GO.OPO.OOO 

 blooms a year, that sell for $2,000,000. 

 It may be in this city we have two grow- 

 ers alone that housed 240,000 carnation 

 plants between them. Think of it! 

 Whatever the number may be and what 

 they bring, the Chicago market gets away 

 with its full share of roses and carna- 

 tions, and for this time we will end and 

 let it go at that. 



PETER WEILAND. 



We present herewith a portrait of Pe- 

 ter Weiland, who at the age of only 23 

 years will superintend the construction 

 and later have full charge of a large 

 modern range of glass at New Castle, 

 Ind., for the gi-owing of cut flowers for 

 the Chicago market. 



The new plant will be owned jointly 

 by Mr. Peter Reinberg. the well-known 

 Chicago florist, and the young man 

 whose portrait appears with tins. It 

 will consist at the start of ten con- 

 nected houses, each 27ix300 feet, with 

 the Garland iron gutter and iron post 

 construction. Of these four houses will 

 be devoted to roses, five to carnations 

 and one to asparagus. The material has 

 been purchased and construction will 

 begin as soon as frost is out of the 

 ground. 



Peter Weiland is the son of M. Weil- 

 and. Evanston, 111., and for the last 

 four years has had charge of his fath- 

 er's extensive range of glass. He has 

 been remarkably successful, especially 

 with carnations and bulbous flowers, and 

 though so young hag already estab- 

 lished an enviable reputation as a 

 grower. Of course he will have the 

 benefit of the advice and experience of 

 Mr. Peter Reinberg in a general wny, but 



in matters of detail he will act entirely 

 upon his own judgment. It is certain- 

 ly a great responsibility to assume at so 

 early an age, but all who know the 

 young man and the intelligent interest 

 "he takes in his profession agree that he 

 is fully equal to it. 



LETTUCE FORCING. 



Though under ordinary conditions good 

 lettuce can be grown out of doors in 

 summer with very little trouble, when 

 it comes to forcing them during winter 

 it is by no means an easy matter, but 

 one that requires constant vigilance, and 

 even with all the care one can give, does 

 not always prove satisfactory. The 

 trouble can be summed up by saying that 

 lettuce is a plant that does not adapt 

 itself readily to forcing. In the earlier 

 stages of growth little trouble is experi- 

 enced, provided good, fresh seed has been 

 procured, so that the plants from the 

 start are free and vigorous. 



It is when the heading stage is reached 

 that the chief trouble known as leaf-burn 

 or heart-rot, is experienced. This disease 

 is the work of a fungus that attacks the 

 edges of the inner leaves, quickly rot- 

 ting the affected parts and sadly dis- 

 figuring the plants, often to such an ex- 

 tent as to render them useless. Exten- 

 sive experiments have been carried on 

 for years with a view to finding a pre- 

 ventive or remedy, and although a good 

 deal of light has been throw'n on the 

 subject from a scientific point of view, so 

 far as I can learn the preventive or rem- 

 edy is still to be found. The only prac- 

 tical advice these experimenters have had 

 to offer is to keep the plants in as healthy 

 a condition as possible. That, of course, 

 any gardener worthy of the name, tries 

 to do, no matter what plant he has un- 

 der cultivation. 



There are three lines that suggest 

 tliemselves to me along which the culti- 

 vator must advance to attain success. 

 The first is to procure a suitable con- 

 dition of soil; the second, to procure 

 suitable atmospheric conditions, and the 

 third, to procure, as far as possible, a 

 fungus resisting variety. 



First, then, let us take the soil, on 

 which must largely depend the healthy 

 condition of our plants. I need not go 

 into the detail of making up a compost 

 heap, as no doubt all the members here 

 know how that is done. The sod should 

 lie cut, and the compost made up the 

 same as for ordinary potting purposes, 

 only for lettuce it should not be loo rich, 

 and I prefer to omit bone and any chemi- 

 cal fertilizers, and use only that from 

 the barn yard. 



I have to grow my lettuce in benches, 

 but if I had my choice would certainly 

 prefer solid beds, and if possible have 

 them right down on the ground level, as 

 here they have a much more natural con- 

 dition of soil and a much more equable 

 condition of moisture can be obtained at 

 the roots. But where only benches are 

 available for their growth, we must 

 make the best of it. 



I find it alwavs better to keep them on 

 the dry side, .as" I find this a preventive 

 of another disease, known as stem-rot. 

 This I have found to develop most read- 

 ily after a watering before which the soil 

 had been allowed to become too dry. 



In filling the benches I use for drain- 

 age old, well rotted manure in a dry and 

 rather spent condition. Over about an 

 inch of this I put about four inches of 

 the prepared compost, working the 

 roughest parts of it toward the bottom. 

 There is no need of packing it, as it can 

 be firmed sufficiently around the plants 

 at planting. 



Now we come to the atmospheric con- 

 ditions. Artificial heat is undoubtedly 

 1 he cause of the greater part of the trou- 

 ble in forcing lettuce. In frames where 

 no artificial heat is used lettuce can be 

 grown well with ordinary care, and are 

 seldom troubled with fungous diseases, 

 but without heat, which must during the 

 winter months be supplied by artificial 

 means, there is little or no growth, hence 

 no forcing, so that we must adopt this 

 necessary evil to attain the end in view. 

 The question, therefore, arises, at what- 

 temperature is it most profitable to force 

 lettuce? Or in other words, what 

 amount of artificial heat can be applied 

 tn lettuce to be suitable to its most rap- 

 id growth and at the same time be un- 

 suitable to the development of fungous 

 diseases? 



My experience leads me to conclude 

 that a temperature of 40 degrees by 

 night with a rise of lH degrees on bright 

 days is, all things considered, the most 

 practicable. Fresh air should be admit- 

 ted on all favorable occasions, and the 

 atmosphere should never be allowed to 

 become close and stagnant. The house 

 should have sufficient piping in it to al- 

 low of the temperature being kept at the 

 figure given without requiring the pipes 

 to be heated sufllciently to give off a dry, 

 burning heat, which would not only be 

 detrimental to the growth of the plants 

 but an incentive to the development of 

 injurious insects. Besides, having the 

 house thus heated obviates to a great ex- 

 tent the necessity of too frequent sprink- 



Now as regards variety. I have tried 

 quite a number and the one I find easi- 

 est to grow and least subject to disease 



