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HORTICULTURE 



April 14. 19US 



MECHANICAL WATERING 



A PROPOSITION. 



"Flow gently, sweet Afton, amoug thy 



green braes. 

 Flow gently. I'll sing thee a song in thy 



praise.'' 



The above as well as the poem re- 

 ferred to in last week's HORTICUL- 

 TURE by Mr. Wittbold, was written 

 by Burns, the man who wrote the 

 "Wee. wee German Lairdie." I am 

 sorry I '-ant sing a song in praise of 

 the smoothly flowing watering ma- 

 chine, for as yet we have no 

 idea just how the mechanical man does 

 his work. My. but it must be a won- 

 der! Healthy argument and criticism 

 are good; that is what brings out 

 points which are welcomed by every 

 one; and the man who starts on a 

 rampage and loses his temper, which 

 is evidently what Mr. Wittbold did, 

 generally gets the worst of the argu- 

 ment and loses the respect of his 

 fellows. I have been at the business 

 both private and commercial for 

 twenty-six years. I have always tried 

 to keep up with the procession in any- 

 thing new; if I saw anything good I 

 gladly gave it my humble indorsement; 

 if, in my judgment I saw it wasn't 

 good, I said so. I am not a diplomat 

 in the sense of the word. Those gen- 

 tlemen say "yes" when they mean 

 "no", and there is no living man or 

 men who have money or influence 

 enough to buy me over to give opin- 

 icns contrary to my honest judgment. 

 I wish the readers of HORTICULTURE 

 to observe this, and if at any future 

 time I should write about things per- 

 taining to the trade they may know 

 that I give my opinions fearlessly and 

 without prejudice. 



Now let me ask Mr. Wittbold a few 

 questions. Step into a private place; 

 there are some plants whose foliage 

 the water must not be allowed to 

 touch; pots away up on shelves where 

 the top rows dry out quicker. How is 

 the machine going to work there? 

 Seedlings out in cold frames hardening 

 off, bulbs, etc. How are they going 

 to be taken care of? Now we will visit 

 the man who grows lilies and pot 

 roses for Easter trade. The former are 

 taken in and set close together till 

 they want more room; then they are 

 given more space. The roses are the 

 same. How can the machine go over 

 from 1.000 to 10,000 pots and see which 

 wants water or even put water into 

 them? 



Suppose we go into a rose house. 

 Did Mr. Wittbold or any other man 

 ever water a rose house and not find 

 there spots which didn't want water and 

 spots where the soil was very dry? I 

 know from experience that in using 

 manure water we have to go over the 

 dry spots with clean water before ap- 

 plying the manure. There are places 

 close to the steam pipes where the 

 little red fellow makes his home and 

 the careful workman always gives this 

 a little better syringing than other 

 parts of the house. How is the ma- 

 chine going to overcome this? Then 

 comes the young stock; how are they 

 to be taken care of? 



If Mr. Wittbold will read in last 



week's HORTICULTURE the essay on 

 Carnations by Mr. Seeker he will find 

 this: "I have yet to find the green- 

 house so situated that all the plants 

 are ready for water at the same time. 

 Consequently if you are soaking the 

 plants that are wet with your weekly 

 feed, the result is soon apparent as the 

 benches will be empty". Perhaps the 

 gentleman's brain will not accept any 

 new theories but he writes good com- 

 mon sense and is evidently governed 

 by practical experience. 



1 suggest the following to Mr. Witt- 

 bold: Let him bring on his machine 

 I will gladly let him install it in any 

 of my houses, he to pay all expense. 

 I will supply the water; any damage 

 to crops or houses he is to make good. 

 I will extend an invitation to the 

 Boston Gardeners' and Florists' Club 

 and any practical man of my acquaint- 

 ance to come and see it in operation. 

 Mr. Wittbold will get a square deal and 

 it will be the best advertisement he 

 ever had. 



As I said in opening argument and 

 criticism are healthy. Don't let us get 

 excited; keep cool; let us have each 

 other's ideas in a friendly way. Don't 

 use any Billingsgate phrases; we all 

 have to learn and I have yet to find 

 the man who knows it all even if he is 

 a specialist in his particular branch. 



Mr. Editor, I have stretched this let- 

 ter longer than I expected. In closing 

 I thank the two gentlemen in your last 

 issue for their views of the watering 

 question and I. like Mr. Finlayson, 

 will retire gracefully from the field and 

 class Mr. Wittbold a benefactor to the 

 florists' profession as soon as he 

 answers the above questions by letting 

 his machine do all the above work. 

 R. T. McGORUM. 



A SUGGESTION. 



Answering my critics on mechanical 

 catering in your paper of April 7th. 

 page 44:',, will say, that I seem to have 

 stirred up a hornet's nest. Let me ask. 

 what experience have these gentlemen 

 had with mechanical watering? Let 

 us remember, that a pipe with some 

 hoies drilled into it, or some other 

 arrangement that did not answer the 

 purpose for which it was intended, 

 should not be brought up as evidence to 

 show that mechanical watering is a 

 failure. 



AVe have now fifteen houses equipped 

 with the system, and are able to cut 

 down our watering expenses 90 per 

 cent, and do more even and better 

 work than before. We grow palms and 

 ferns, and find for this class of stock, 

 it certainly is a grand success. As I 

 believe only the evidence of those who 

 are using my idea of watering should 

 be of any. value to the readers of 

 HORTICULTURE as they would speak 

 from experience, I suggest that HOR- 

 TICULTURE get an expression from 

 W. B. Davis Co., Aurora, Ills.. Davis 

 Bros.. Morrison. Ills., Klehms Nur- 

 series, Arlington Heights, Ills., or 

 Stephen Hyde, Carthage, Mo. The 

 above comprise vegetable and cut- 

 flower growers, and their experience 

 should be of value to the readers of 

 HORTICULTURE. 



LOUIS WITTBOLD 



THE GREENHOUSES AT OCHRE 

 COURT, NEWPORT. 



One of the largest private ranges of 

 greenhouses in Newport is at Ochre 

 Court, the residence of Mrs. Ogden 

 Goelet. It is always very interesting 

 to visit this place because of its ex- 

 tent and the variety of plants, flowers 

 and fruit grown there. The green- 

 houses are modern in the fullest mean- 

 ing of the word and numerous enough 

 to allow a house for each stock grown. 

 There are two graperies, two nectarine 

 and peach houses, two palm houses, 

 one stove, one carnation house, one 

 gardenia house and two miscellaneous 

 plant houses, all of which are utilized 

 to their fullest capacity by James J. 

 Sullivan, the gardener. 



The palm house, an ornamental 

 structure of gigantic proportions, con- 

 tains many large and beautiful speci- 

 men palms, but more interesting by 

 far than these are some superb dick- 

 sonias, twenty-five feet high. In the 

 stove are crotons and dracaenas in 

 great variety, together with a collec- 

 tion of well-grown stove plants of 

 other species. 



With gardenias Mr. Sullivan has 

 been continuously successful, which he 

 in part attributes to his invariable 

 rule in using water of a temperature 

 a degree or more warmer than that of 

 the house, gardenias being very sus- 

 ceptible to water of a cool tempera- 

 ture. Gardenias blooming abundantly 

 and uninterruptedly since Christmas 

 are present and past criterions suf- 

 ficient to convince that Mr. Sullivan's 

 watering and other methods agreed 

 with the plants. 



Over a year ago the San Jose scale 

 became intimately connected with the 

 peach and nectarine trees on this 

 place. In this connection the scale be- 

 came so persistently adhesive that 

 fumigating with cyanide of potassium 

 was finally suggested by the authori- 

 ties at the agricultural college. The 

 results were very gratifying and the 

 trees are now fine and vigorous. 



In the carnation house the varieties 

 grown are Lawson, Enchantress, 

 President Roosevelt and Variegated 

 Lawson. Variegated Lawsons were 

 planted so late that they are only now 

 beginning to flower, but the flowers 

 are considered so satisfactory that the 

 plants are to be allowed to remain in 

 the house all summer and more plant- 

 ed for next season in addition. On 

 this place a small house is exclusively 

 devoted to alternantheras. With alter- 

 nanthera Mr. Sullivan departed from 

 the usual method of putting in flats, 

 and instead he planted it in benches 

 in the fall. This departure has not 

 been successful. Alternantheras, 

 especially the tender red varieties, 

 come through the winter in better con- 

 dition if they are packed closely in 

 flats: the other method might result 

 differently if a high enough tempera- 

 ture could be kept up to keep the 

 plants growing. 



In a bench Nicotiana Sanderae is in 

 full vigor and bloom. Mr. Sullivan 

 finds that if plunged in water immedi- 

 ately after cutting, flowers of N. 

 Sanderae will stand shipping and last 

 a week in a house. Begonias seem to 

 be coming in again here. I noticed 

 them in the seedling stage in variety, 

 including a fine lot of seedlings of the 

 new red Begonia Erfordis. 



D. M. 



