828 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



SIaech 17, 1904. 



Vegetable Forcing. 



"I DO not know, ' ' says an English 

 writer, "to wliat extent tlie practice of 

 raising onions under glass early in the 

 year, to be afterwards transplanted into 

 the garden, obtains, but it is apparent 

 that those who have accorded it a fair 

 trial are so enamored by the results as 

 to have adopted it instead of the old 

 method of sowing in the open. ' ' 



THE MARKETS. 



Chicago, March 16. — Eadishes, 25 to 

 60 cents dozen bunches ; lettuce, heads, 

 $3 to $3.50 barrel; leaf, case, 40 to 45 

 cents; cucumbers, 50 cents to $1.50 

 dozen. 



New York, March 15. — Cucumbers, $1 

 to $2 dozen ; lettuce, 10 to 20 cents dozen ; 

 mushrooms, 10 to 60 cents pound; rad- 

 ishes, $1 to $2.50, 100 bunches; tomatoes, 

 10 to 20 cents pound; rhubarb, 30 to 65 

 cents dozen. 



HEATING VEGETABLE HOUSE. 



Will you oblige me by giving points 

 about my heating plant? I have bought 

 a new vertical twenty horse-power boiler 

 and wish to know how to pipe my vege- 

 table house in the best manner for steam. 

 The dimensions of the house are 25x180, 

 fourteen feet to ridge, with span of 

 twenty feet to the south and eight feet 

 boarded up to the north. E. E. B. 



I judge from the writer's letter that 

 he wishes to use the house in question 

 for the production of lettuce, radishes, 

 and possibly cucumbers late in the sea- 

 son. If so the temperature required by 

 these crops will necessitate about 1,890 

 square feet radiation or a Si^-inoh riser 

 running from end to end of the house 

 under the ridge and returning by sixteen 

 1^4-inch returns. These may be ar- 

 ranged upon the outside walls in coils or, 

 if raised benches are used, small coils, 

 say of three pipes at the south side and 

 four at the north, may be placed on the 

 walls, with the other nine pipes distrib- 

 uted under the benches. If solid benches 

 are used the nine pipes may be distrib- 

 uted over the benches about eighteen 

 inches from the surface of the soil. 



The upright boiler will require a deep 

 boUer pit, as the water line in the boiler 

 should be at least two feet below the low- 

 est point in the return pipes, otherwise a 

 steam trap or pump will be necessary to 

 return the condensed water from a hot 

 well to the boiler. In general upright 

 boilers are not desirable for greenhouse 

 heating on this account and because of 

 the small fire box with which they are 

 usually provided. L. C. C. 



MUSHROOMS IN CELLAR. 



In recent issues of the Review I 

 notice W. S. Croydon's notes on mush- 

 rooms and would like to get some fur- 

 ther information with regard to the best 

 way to make a start in growing mush- 

 rooms. I have one cellar 16x27 and 

 another 8x40 feet. C. B. 



In a cellar 16x27 you can have four 

 beds, two on each side, one being built 

 above the other. The beds would of 

 course run lengthwise of the house and 

 in the width of sixteen feet you can 

 make vour benches six feet wide. As 



the bed is better to be away from the 

 cold, damp wall, a space of three inches 

 could be left between the back of the 

 bench and the wall. This would leave a 

 passageway three feet six inches wide 

 up the center of your cellar, which 

 would give ample freedom to take in and 

 out the material for constructing the 

 beds. In the cellar eight feet wide the 

 benches would have to be constructed on 

 the one side only, and to allow freedom 

 to work could not be over five feet wide. 

 In a very high cellar three benches 

 could be constructed in each tier, but 

 enough space should be left between the 

 benches and over the upper one to give 

 freedom to work. This would require 

 about three feet of space. The lower 

 bench is better to be raised above the 

 ground sufiiciently to allow of a free 

 circulation of air under it. In a case of 

 limited space sis inches would do, but 

 if a little more can be given, all the 

 better. 



The benches should be one foot deep 

 and the bottom boards cut so as to fit 

 closely together. It is a good plan to 

 leave the bottom boards of the upper 

 benches unnailed, so as they can be 

 lifted aside when making the bottom 

 beds, those being the first to be made 

 up, thus allowing an opportunity to get 

 into them and pack the material with 

 the feet. 



To make your cellars suitable for 

 mushroom culture through the winter 

 months it would be necessary to have 

 some means of supplying heat, as this 

 crop cannot be grown with any cer- 

 tainty of success if the temperature faUs 

 below 50 degrees. In a good, close cel- 

 lar, with the assistance of the heat from 

 the beds, a flow and return hot water 

 4-inch pipe ought to be sufiicient to give 

 the desired temperature in the 8-foot 

 cellar and double that amount for the 

 16-foot cellar. The pipes should be ar- 

 ranged so that they will not be too close 

 to any of the benches or they would dry 

 the bed out at the point nearest, which 

 would make the crop come uneven and 

 might even result in considerable in- 

 jury thereto. 



Now that the cold weather is over you 

 could try some beds on the floor of the 

 cellars, making them about five or sis 

 feet wide and about two feet deep. This 

 depth would be necessary to insure their 

 retaining sufiicient heat to mature the 

 crop. The article you mention having 

 read pretty well covers the preparation 

 of manure, the making up of the beds, 

 spawning, etc., but to this I would add 

 a warning to avoid manure gathered 

 from stables where they use sawdust or 

 wood chips for bedding, as there is 

 always the danger of these containing 

 the mycelium of fungi, which if intro- 

 duced would work havoc in the mush- 

 room bed. 



A moist atmosphere is necessary in 

 the culture of mushrooms, but with the 

 absence of artificial heat the necessary 

 moisture should be easily maintained. 

 Should the atmosphere become dry, how- 

 ever, an occasional sprinkling of the 

 space between the beds may be necessary 

 and even the walls might be lightly 

 sprinkled, but a heavy, stifling atmos- 

 phere must be avoided. Some means of 

 airing should be provided and a little air 

 admitted every day when the air out- 

 doors is not too cold, but cold draughts 

 must always be avoided. 



W, S. Croydon. 



CotTLD not keep house without The Re- 

 view. — E. E. Allen, Blairsville, Pa. 



Seed Trade News. 



AMERICAN SEED TRADE ASSOOATION. 



Pres., S. F. WlUard, Wethersfield. Conn.; First 

 Vlce-Pres., J. Chas. McCuUough. Cincinnati, O.; 

 Sec'y and Treas., C. B. Kendel, Cleveland, O. 

 The 22d annual meeting will be held at St. Louis, 

 Mo., June, IStlM. 



E. J. BowEN, the venerable and 

 wealthy California seedsman, died 

 March 5. 



Visited Chicago. — E. M. Parmelee, of 

 the John H. Allan Seed Co., Cheboy- 

 gan, Wis. 



Louisville, Ky. — Onion sets are prac- 

 tically sold out here, no yellows are to 

 be had, and but few whites. 



The pea and bean growers all agree 

 that the percentage of shrink and the 

 cost of hand picking has been unusual- 

 ly heavy this season. 



From the jobbers' standpoint the 

 scarce stocks at present are muskmelon, 

 squash, pumpkin, field corn, _ beans, 

 sweet peas, seed potatoes and onion sets. 



The board of general appraisers has 

 sustained the protest of E. S. Porter & 

 Co. that certain merchandise classed as 

 seed peas by the collector of customs at 

 New York was dutiable as dried peas. 



Toronto, Ont. — S. E. Briggs, of the 

 Steele-Briggs Seed Co., and W. E. Wel- 

 Ungton, of Stone & Wellington, nursery- 

 men, have been elected members of the 

 executive board of the Industrial Ex- 

 position. 



The Republican of Ventura, Cal., for 

 March 3 contained an illustrated write- 

 up of the begonias growing on the 

 grounds of the Theodosia B. Shepherd 

 Co,, where many fine varieties, including 

 Marjorie Daw, originated. 



The market garden trade is the seeds- 

 man's standby. Early or late seasons do 

 not affect it'; hotbeds are made when 

 the time comes, regardless of weather, 

 and a yearly order may be relied on 

 with but slight variations. 



The cold weather and snow storms at 

 the north and the planting time ad- 

 vancing at the south makes it hard for 

 the seedsman to make proper connections.' 

 An uncompleted southern order is a 

 most annoying thing at present. 



The longer the bad weather continues 

 the harder it will be to properly size 

 up the seed sweet corn situation. The 

 gaps have not yet been tilled and no 

 sweet corn has been grown since last 

 fall's harvest, but a lack of inquiry 

 caused by weather conditions has a de- 

 pressing tendency and will weaken 

 prices until the weather changes. 



The G. W. P. Jerrard Co., Caribou, 

 Me., says that potatoes never kept bet- 

 ter in this county than they have the past 

 winter. No rot and very few frosted 

 ones. They are going forward rapidly 

 now at very satisfactory prices. Market 

 stock is netting tlie farmers from 75 to 

 SO cents per bushel and seed varieties are 

 selling at an advance of these figures. 

 The indications are that there will be 

 quite an increase in the acreage the 

 coming season. Oats, 50 cents per 

 bushel; hay, $10 per ton. 



