156 



HORTICU LTU RE 



August 18, 1906 



for success. I have said the same ever since and I em- 

 phasize it again today. These large houses with their 

 light iron and steel construction, which afiord-: the 

 maximum of strength and the minimum of shade, and 

 glass up to 24 by 36 inches, seem to have almost 

 reached the limit of advancement. It may be that 

 within a few years glass with pliability enough to roll 

 will be manufactured in widths of 3 or 4 feet and only 

 limited in length by the extent of the sash bars (I have 

 no hesitation in predicting it), and this will mean more 

 light. What a short time it is since the passing of the 

 2 1-2-inch deep sash bars, 5-inch rafters and 6-inch 

 purlines, and 10 in. by 12 in. glass. No doubt there 

 are and were a great many who realized the importance 

 of light as much as I did or do, yet had not the means 

 and could not get monetary support enough to put their 

 ideas into effect. In 1885 the suggestion of u glass 

 house 700 feet long, 40 feet wide, one span, would have 

 been regarded as extravagantly absurd, and the man 

 who would have dared to say "that's what I'm going to 

 do" would have been ran away from. Yet we have to- 

 day our 700x40x30 houses. It costs lots of money 

 to make such things, and in 1885 we hadn't the money. 



As to the hot water versus steam controversy which 

 has raged incessantly since 1885, we can safely say that 

 first-class stock comes from hot water and from steam — 

 if the men themselves are first-class, not without. 

 There never should be and there never has been any 

 difiiculty in getting sufficient heat where the coal pile 

 is big enough, the boiler big enough and a pipe capacity 

 sufficient for a circulation to maintain a temperature 

 of 150 if necessary. In heating, since 1885 there really 

 is nothing new, except that common sense application 

 is more understood and acted on. Water boils at the 

 same temperature now as then; there is no more caloric 

 in the coal today than there was then; and I qu'.stion 

 very much if there is actually any plan known which 

 enables us to get more heat otit of coal than was avail- 

 able at that time. In administration the larger estab- 

 lishments have availed themselves of the economical 

 appliances in the stoking and draft control of the fire, 

 things well understood in manufacturing concerns 

 where large quantities of coal have been consumed for 

 fifty years. Thirty years ago 140 tons of coal a year 

 was quite a pile for the average greenhouse man to 

 bum. Heating, as compared with light, is a third or 

 fourth consideration. 



I cannot refrain from telling a story about hi^ating 

 which is amusing and incidentally brings to mind what 

 was attempted with the rose Wm. Francis Bennett on 

 Long Island, and how it failed. The "old guard" 

 needs no reminder. At Queens, bright and early one 

 Monday morning in .January, a man walked into the 

 shed carrying, as I thought, a book peddler's outfit, yet 

 he did not look exactly like a peddler; then I thought 

 he might be the registrar of births, deaths and mar- 

 riages; then he might be the assessor of taxes. Ulti- 

 mately he turned out to be the census taker. This is 

 what he said : "You don't keep your greenhouse^ half 



hot enough ; come down to Middle Village and I'll show 

 you something about heating. I've got the Wm. Francis 

 Bennett rose (he had interested with him a wholesaler 

 who lived under the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York). 

 I've got two boilers where there was only one and I've 

 got my piping trebled, and whilst it takes those Madi- 

 son and Flushing fellows 21 days to root a rose culting 

 I do it in less than half the time, and you can see what 

 that means." Some of us remember the results of this 

 double-barreled heating apparatus and the way it cooked 

 Bennetts. 



There is nothing new in the arranging and locating 

 of heating pipes, but the advance in construction of 

 ventilating apparatus has been very great since 1885. 

 The recent mechanical watering device of Louis Witt- 

 bold deserves to be tried by all those having establish- 

 ments, whether great or small. I have not the least 

 hesitancy in stating that it possesses a great deal of ■ 

 merit. 



One of the great things accomplished since 1885 for 

 the welfare and best interest of florists and pot manu- 

 facturers is the standard flower pot. How much has 

 been saved — room in nesting, room in benching, saving 

 in freight, less breakage, and less costly. There was a 

 fight for the "Standard," and Landseer did not make 

 the picture. 



Methods of disposing of cut flowers have grown rap- 

 idly on the line of commission houses, which seemingly 

 is accepted as the best method for that purpose. As 

 recently as 1890 there were less than a score of commis- 

 sion houses advertising in the trade papers ; now there 

 are nearly four times as many. The increase in adver- 

 tising in all other branches of the business is even more 

 marked. In 1890 there were scarcely more than 150 

 advertising firms, while today there are 300 or more. 



The steady growth of the pot plant trade is almost 

 incredible, and this is not confined to any class of plants 

 in particular. Any plant when skilfully and well 

 gro^^Ti is as readily sold as a peck of potatoes. The pot 

 plant trade will not hurt the cut flower trade at any 

 stage, and it will not be very long ere the business of 

 growing of pot plants will be of as much importance as 

 is the cut flower growing. 



The past few years have brought great changes in 

 summer bedding, the once popular carpet and figure 

 bedding having almost entirely disappeared. This was 

 undoubtedly caused by the flagrant abuse and the 

 wretched workmanship of the so-called artists. Given 

 the proper position and the right material in the hands 

 of men of good taste who would make pictures to fit 

 and there are places for carpet bedding as there ere for 

 tin tacks. Bold massing of color in large displays seem 

 the most popular in flower garden treatment at this 

 time, but the fashion may change to something else ere 

 long. The appreciation herbaceous plants are receiving 

 has brought them back to a better position even than 

 they enjoyed forty years ago; this is a branch of the 

 business which will well repay further exploiting. 



Taking roses, not only those grown for cut flowers 



