Al'Kii. : 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



547 



Ernst G. Asmus' exhibit that won the Thorley cup at the exhibition of the American Rose Society, New York. 



end about half an inoh into the melted 

 wax, afterward pressing the ends w.th 

 a wooden paddle that they may not 

 retain too much wax. 



Select the same kind of wood that 

 you would for cuttings. Lay your cut- 

 tings on the edge of your grafting 

 table and with a sharp, thin bladed 

 knife cut from you, turn the cut- 

 tings, laying the smooth cut flat on 

 the table, make a second cut from you 

 and you will have a wedge-shaped cut- 

 ting, smooth and true. Wash your 

 roots but do not get them mixed up 

 and take the wrong end. It is better 

 to cut off one piece at a time, each 

 about two inches long. Make an in- 

 cision in the end of the root about the 

 same length as the wedge shapfd cut- 

 ting, insert the cutting into the root 

 and roll your piece of waxed twine. 

 The waxed ends will hold it quite 

 firmly. 



Insert the grafts in the sand bed 

 as you would cuttings, being careful to 

 have the union covered by the sand, 

 and when new roots have started pot 

 off in the usual way. Roses grafted 

 in this way ought to be produced at 

 an advance of IV^ to 2 cents over own 

 rooted ones. 



The question will naturally arise, 

 are they as good as whole roots? All 

 life is but a continuation of cell 

 growth. If you start with only a few 

 cells it will, of course, take longer to 

 produce a large plant than by starting 

 with a one year root, but the result 

 will ultimately be the same. No doubt 

 the ease and rapidity with which graft- 

 ing can be done in this way puts into 

 the hands of every rose grower an op- 

 portunity to use grafted stock. Nearly 



every graft takes. Even wood thit 

 can not be used for making cuttings 

 can be utilized and will make quite 

 good plants, but this is not to be rec- 

 ommended. 



I hope I have succeeded in making 

 the operation quite plain. I have ti'ied 

 many other ways of grafting but this 

 I find (after a little practice! is the 

 quickest and best. 



A. GILCHRIST. 



Toronto Junction, Ont. 



FILLING AND EMPTYING BENCHES. 



S. S. p. asks the following: "What 

 is the most economical method for fi.l- 

 ing and emptying benches in a long 

 rose house, say 200 feet?" 



This question has been discussed 

 both on the platform and through the 

 journals, with the result that every 

 man will follow the plan that suits hzn 

 best. We will suppose that in all mod- 

 ern houses you see none or the 

 old bushel basket in front of a perspir- 

 ing man or the cruel hand bariow, 

 which is about as laborious. How 

 these men who have built or are build- 

 ing 600 and 700 foot houses intend ta 

 fill their benches, 1 don't know, but it 

 is one of the serious questions about 

 such houses. Most assuredly there 

 must be access at both ends for cart- 

 ing in the soil and it is a serious job 

 even then. 



The large Canadian growers (I no- 

 ticed the method at Mr. Dunlop's) have 

 a movable tramway with a truck hold- 

 ing almost a yard of soil. The bottom 

 of the truck is formed like an in- 

 verted letter V, with the sides hinged 

 at top and fastened by some simple ar- 



rangement at bottom. When loosened 

 the sides fly open and out falls all the 

 soil. The portable tracks are easily 

 laid or moved. The trucks run out at 

 the end of the house and are loaaed 

 from a wagon. When, the house h s 

 only two 6-foot benches this plan an- 

 swers well, but where there are fojr 

 benches, each perhaps 3 or 4 foot, as 

 in the old-fashioned long-span-to-:he 

 south houses, I don't see how it c.n 

 answer so well. The soil can be 

 brought in allright but a great deal of 

 luindling is needed after it is dumped 

 on the bench. 



I have conversed with several large 

 rose and carnation growers who have 

 houses 300 feet long and all of them 

 said that they could get along first 

 rate with the wheelbarrow and I am 

 of that opinion myself. Although hiv- 

 ing no houses over 175 feet long I d3 

 not want anything more handy than 

 the wheelbarrow, for it puts the soil 

 just where you want it. In building 

 these things should be considered. 

 Houses may all radiate from a shed 

 or central house and you may never 

 need or use a door at the farther end. 

 but when it comes to filling your 

 benches the shed or center house is the 

 most unhandy place for handling soil, 

 so a commodious door should always 

 be in the gable end, if it is only used 

 one week in the year. It can be locked 

 or screwed up the rest of the time. 



In such a plain job as filling a 

 bench with soil there is some system 

 needed. To set one man to fill his bar- 

 row and then wheel it two hundred 

 feet and return again to his pile all 

 alone is a poor way to do it and likely 

 to produce the dumps or a kink in 



