February 4. 1004. 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



503 



Field of Paper White Narcissi at the Establishment of Thomas Thompson, Santa Cruz, Cal., Photographed January J4. 



shed and an end of a modern greenhouse. 

 In the foreground is the floral float con- 

 structed by Jlr. Winterich. The wagon 

 platform is 8x16 feet. The American 

 eagle was made of chicken wire netting 

 covered with crepe paper and measured 

 five feet from tip to tip of wings. Tlie 

 globe was covered with wliite cape flow- 

 ers and stood in a base covered with Wm. 

 Languth geraniums which were in turn 

 surrounded by S. A. Nutt geraniums in 

 full bloom. The platform carried palms 

 and ferns. Around the edge of the plat- 

 form hung Asparagus Sprengeri and the 

 name was made of the same material. 

 The idea was that the eagle represented 

 the nation as above the world, or the other 

 nations. The figures on the float were 

 hailing Uncle Sam as the leader of the 

 nations. 



CYCAS AND BOSTON FERNS. 



Would you please let me know through 

 your valuable paper how to take care of 

 the sago palm from starting the stem, 

 also the best treatment for Boston 

 ferns? M. S. 



The dormant stems of Cycas revoluta 

 are usually received from Japan in the 

 spring, and should be potted up as soon 

 as possible after their arrival. The 

 stems should be put in as small pots as 

 they may be conveniently potted into; 

 for example, a stem that weighs three 

 or four pounds will usually go into a 

 6-ineh pot without much trouble, though 

 sometimes a 7-inch pot may be required 

 for one of that size. 



Pot firmly and then give a good wat- 

 ering, placing the stems in a warm and 

 shaded greenhouse, a night temperature 

 of 70 degrees being enough to start the 

 stems into growth gradually, the object 

 being to get some root growth at the 

 same time as the leaves come up. A 

 syringing over the stems once or twice 

 a day will help to swell them up and 

 start the leaves, but until the growth 

 ■ shows they will not require daily water- 

 ings. 



The young leaves of a cycas are very 

 tender while they are unfolding, and 

 they must therefore be handled very 



carefully at that stage. A good rose or 

 carnation soil will grow cycas all rigli^. 

 but avoid fresh manure when first Dot- 

 ting them up, a sprinkling of bone dust 

 in the soil being better at that time. 



A stiff soil with a moderate quantity 

 of well decayed stable manure is the best 

 for tlie Boston fern, the use of a light 

 soil with peat or leaf mold in it re- 

 sulting in long and thin foliage and a 

 plant of less substance. Grow them in 

 full sunshine at this season and only 

 give moderate shade in the summer. 

 Give the plants space enough to get 

 plenty of light and air, and see that 

 they do not get dry, shifting them on 

 into larger pots before they get starved 

 and runty. Set the plants over from 

 time to time and cut off the runners 

 that are outside the pots, this helping 

 to keep the strength of the crown and 

 to develop a sturdy and compact plant. 



If you wish to get up a stock of the 

 Boston fern, plant out a few plants on 

 a bench in a house kept at about 65 de- 

 grees at night and the runners will so'^" 

 take possession of the bench after the 

 fashion of an old strawberry bed, but 

 if the most satisfactory kind of plants 

 for the retail trade are desired, it is 

 much the better plan to grow them in 

 pots during the whole season, rather than 

 to adopt the plan of growing them in a 

 bench and lifting and potting the ferns 

 in the fall. W. H. Taplin. 



THE MAKING OF WINDOW GLASS. 



Being asked to tell the Chicago Flor- 

 ists' Club something about window 

 glass, M. G. Holding, of the Sprague, 

 Smith Co., described its manufacture in 

 the following words, read at the meet- 

 ing January 28: 



The materials of which window glass 

 is made are chiefly white sand, lime and 

 alkali, all melted together by intense 

 heat, about 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit, 

 ap])lied for about fifteen hours. 



Formerly, and for many years, all 

 glass was made in crucibles or pots 

 made of fire clay, very thitk and heavy, 

 to stand the heat and hold the weight of 

 the batch. In later years a large pro- 

 portion of window glass has been made 



in what is known as the continuous 

 melting tank. 



The first successful tank was built 

 in Belgium, in 1884, and created a 

 great disturbance with labor and in 1886 

 a mob destroyed the factories. Ever 

 since the rebuilding, the tanks have been 

 in successful operation. 



The adoption of the tank came in this 

 country much later and they have now 

 largely displaced the old pot factories. 

 Still a large quantity of glass is made 

 in pots, the capiUil required for a tank 

 factory being large compared with that 

 for a pot factory. 



It would be impossible to give you in 

 words any adequate description of the 

 process of making window glass. It 

 must Im- seen to he a.ppreciated. In gen- 

 eral the gatherer dips the end of the 

 blow pipe, which is a heavy iron tube, 

 into the melted glass and brings out a 

 ball of the material, which is then taken 

 by the blower and gradually blown into 

 a large cylinder. The cylinder is cracked 

 open with a hot iron and it then goes to 

 the flattening oven, where it is flattened 

 and annealed, and is then ready for the 

 cutter. 



It is interesting to watch the blower 

 make from a ball of glass a cylinder 

 from twelve to eighteen inches in diam- 

 eter and from six to seven feet long, of 

 even and uniform thickness. In fact, 

 the whole process of making window 

 glass, from the melting of the batch to 

 the cutting table, requires skill of a high 

 order and can only be learned by long 

 practice and experience. It is no easy 

 work to handle on the end of a heavy 

 blow pipe, four feet long, a heavy cylin- 

 der of glass six or seven feet long. 



The skilled labor around a glass fur- 

 nace is very well paid, the average wage 

 being high, and some of it very high. 

 It is not unusual for a blower of large 

 double strength glass to make $400 per 

 month. Of course the average is much 

 below this. 



The workers have had for many years 

 the strongest kind of a union and have 

 kept wages high, taking advantage of 

 the very high tariff on window glass. 

 The worker in Belgium receives much 



