464 



H () U'V I (MT I; TIT RE 



ApHI i, 191B 



CARNATIONS FROM THE FIELD TO 



THE HOUSE. 



KtMd ittrMrt* till* IjiiM-itHiiT rouniv li<>r- 

 lilii mull liy <"hti«. II. Ilorr, of StranliurK, 

 Pn. 



This to my mind l« a wido mibjcct, 

 and has been written on repeatedly. 

 To some of you It Is no doubt "thread 

 bare." 



We plant out the youuR plants from 

 pots to the fleld ns early in May as 

 we can, in rows twenty Indies apart 

 and eleven Inches in the row, cultivat- 

 ing them with a hand harrow after 

 every rain, and In dry season keep 

 the harrow moving. 



The topping In the field can not bi' 

 done too carefully, not waiting imtil :i 

 great number are ready. There ma.\ 

 be in the first topping only a few hun 

 dred. All season we are trying to 

 keep the plants down, never allowing 

 them to get too high, as wo find the 

 high leggy plants (as we may term 

 them) are more liable to be hard 

 wooded and have more dead foliage. 



Of course these high topped plants 

 look larger (when they really are not) 

 because they have less side shoots. 

 Again you all know different varieties 

 must be topped accordingly, but never 

 allowed to get too high. 



In preparing the houses for plant ing- 

 in time, which with us is the last week 

 of August, we clean out all the soil 

 and give the houses a thorough clean- 

 ing, whitewashing tlie sides of benches, 

 the bottom boards are taken out. swept 

 clean and then floated In lime water, 

 then are carried by forks on tracks to 

 dry in the sun. After they are dry we 

 place as many on a pile as a man can 

 readily carry. Next they are again 

 taken back to their places and put on 

 piles of four each. In that way they 

 do not warp as they would if spread 

 over the benches. We leave them on 

 piles until we are ready to fill in the 

 soil. 



In placing the bottom boards we al- 

 low a small space between each board, 

 using excelsior to cover over cracks 

 to keep the manure from falling 

 through. The benches are then ready 

 for the soil. I can say here that by 

 treating the bench boards in this way 

 we have been using a great many of 

 the same boards ever since I have 

 been in business, which is fourteen 

 years. 



We do not sieve or screen the soil 

 as we once did. but by handling it over 

 two or three times and watching the 

 clods when loading the barrows we 

 get it in good shape. By screening 

 your soil if you are not very careful 

 you will find a great deal of your best 

 soil and manure wasted. I know It 

 was so in our case. 



After the benches are filled with 

 soil we water them just enough for 

 nice planting. Before planting we 

 shade the hotises. and after planting 

 three or four hundred we water them 

 and keep watering over and over to 

 be sure the soil is saturated throuirh, 

 after that only giving them a light 

 spraying two or three times a day. de- 

 pending very much on the kind of 

 weather we are having at the time, 

 ever trying to get the soil back to its 

 normal condition, yet never allowing 

 the plants to get too dry until they are 

 ■well established, being very careful 

 not to let drafts of air blow over them. 



AUCTION SALE OF HOLLAND STOCK 



The lirst sale ot' Imported Trees, Shrubs and Roots 

 will take place on Friday, April 9, at uui i<»>iiis, 

 11 J Arch Street, 10 A. M. OwiiiR- to uncertainlies 

 and war risks it will be wise to secure your stock 



.-It this first sale. 



N. F. McCarthy & co. 



HORTICULIURAL AUCTIONEERS BOSTON, MASS. 



for if they are once wilted it will take 

 some time to get them back to their 

 normal condition again. 



We take all the buds off when plant- 

 ing them in, and in fact for some time 

 after they are housed. 



Beacon for one will start a great 

 many buds very soon after housing 

 with very short stems. I must say 

 right here Beacon truly is a grand car- 

 nation, a free bloomer, fine habit of 

 growth and carries out to the end of 

 the season with me, which last season 

 was to the end of July. And so long as 

 it does that for us we surely will not 

 drop it. My argument is you are only 

 taxing your plants when you allow 

 them to bloom right after housing, as 

 you are only getting flowers on very 

 short stems and receiving very little 

 money for them. 



Get your plants in good healthy con- 

 dition and well established, then tliey 

 will be ready for work when the flow- 

 ers bring you more money. .Just as 

 soon as the plants are established we 

 put on the first wire and tie. I really 

 think the carnation loses time if not 

 kept tied up properly, and the less yo\i 

 handle them the better they like it. 



Tlie new varieties we are growing 

 this season are Gorgeous. Matchless 

 and Philadelphia. Gorgeous w-ith us is 

 a wonderful stem maker and fine habit 

 of growth and has every promise of 

 being a fine carnation. Matchless up 

 to the present time has done very well. 

 It too is a vigorous grower. If there is 

 anything we could criticise it would 

 be the shortness of its stems. Phila- 

 delphia is a wonderful plant maker and 

 a very clean grower. With us so far 

 it has been a bit slow, but at present 

 is full of buds. 



My experience has been that after 

 growing the new varieties the second 

 year they prove themselves so much 

 better from the first that I think we do 

 them an injustice in being too severe 

 in our criticisms. For instance the 

 first year we grew Mrs. C. W. Ward 

 it was very short in stems and very 

 uneven on the benches. In fact we 

 were not very much pleased with it 

 excepting the form and color of the 

 flowers. Today its habit of growth 

 and length of stem class it among our 

 best. 



In addition to the older varieties we 

 are growing Supreme, Pink Delight. 

 Benora and White Perfection which 

 are all doing well. We will drop Per- 

 fection another season because of its 

 tendency to give so many split flowers 

 and grow Matchless instead. Up to this 



time we have not cut one split flower 

 from Matchless of which we have one 

 thousand. Supreme we shall retain 

 and drop the others by reason of hav- 

 ing too many varieties in this color. 



BOON FOR A LIBRARY. 

 The following letter has been re- 

 ceived at this office and speaks for It- 

 self; 



'Ji-nlleiiiC'ii : I have nearly or quite oniii- 

 Ijlete UlcH or the "Horticulture" and other 

 Iradc pajxTs for many years hark. These 

 are Kettliit: «o bulky that I have to file 

 Iheni away lu such shape that they ore not 

 available for reference. I shall be Khul lo 

 give these to some eduiatlonal Institution 

 or library If sure that they will be made 

 available for reference. Will you not pub- 

 lish a notice to this effect. 

 Yours truly, 



W. N. Rtllil). 



Morgan Park, Chicago, 111. 



THE BREAD LINE. 



Thai llorib iillur.il Hall llower show in 

 all rlulil In it.'s way, but for real luxury 

 good breail flour or nbe pastry ditto, fair- 

 ly surpass orchids and hyacinths, however 

 rare, as an exhibit.— Boston Kecord. 



The Good Book says "Man shall not 

 live by bread alone." The writer of 

 the above lines evidently agrees and 

 he selects pie as his limit. The Rec- 

 ord should pick a different breed when 

 selecting reviewers on the subject of 

 flower shows. His place Is at the 

 trough. 



ON EASTER DAY 



We light the Easter Are, and the Easter 



lamps we trim, 

 .\nd lilies rear their challced cups In 



churches rich and dim, 

 .\nd chapel low and minister high the same 



trhimpbanl strains 

 In city and in village raise, and on the 



lonely plains. 



"Life" Is the strain, and "endless life" the 



chiming bells repeat — 

 .\ word of victory over death, a word of 



promise sweet; 

 And as the great good clasps the less, the 



sun !i myriad rays. 

 So do a hundred thoughts of Joy cling 



round our Easter days. 



And one, which seems at times the best 



and dearest of them all, 

 Is this: that all the many dead Id ages 



past recall, 

 With the friends wlio died so long ago that 



memory seeks in vain 

 To call the vanished faces back, and make 



tbem live again ; 



And those so lately gone from us that 

 still they seem to be 



Beside our path, beside our board, in view- 

 less company — 



A light for all our weary hours, a glorj 

 by the way — 



.\11, all the dead, the near, the far, take 

 part In Elaster day. 



— SiMon Coolidge. 



