150 CARNATIONS IN PENNSYLVANIA 



grower, the only danger being that in the event of one of 

 those unaccountable failures that sometimes happen, the 

 grower would find himself without a means of income. 

 Pennsylvania growers are fully alive to the advantages of 

 trying out new varieties, and there is hardly a novelty that 

 will not be found in one or other of the growers' houses. 



Hybridizing has not been carried on to any great 

 extent since the days of Chas. Starr and his associates 

 among the Chester County growers, but there are a number 

 of workers in a small way who grow from fifty to a hundred 

 seedhngs each season without having developed anything 

 wonderful, or perhaps without the necessary push to get 

 them in the market. 



The type of houses for the growing of Carnations in 

 Pennsylvania is the same as is adopted in other sections, 

 and all over the State we find the modern house sometimes 

 covering benches of inferior varieties, but generally showing 

 their value in the quality of blooms produced. A few 

 growers yet stick to the butted glass construction, but the 

 tendency seems to be toward lapped glass bedded in putt v. 



The majority of the Pennsylvania growers have been 

 using a solid bed form of culture, some with their beds 

 directly on the natural ground on which their houses were 

 built, others with made beds built up about 20 in. from the 

 ground, with concrete or brick sides, about a foot of ashes 

 or broken stone for drainage, and the soil on top of this to 

 the depth of some 5 in. These beds give an excellent growth 

 and much longer stemmed flowers than the ordinary 

 bench, but are a little slower in production during the early 

 Winter months, and on this account are in many places 

 being discarded for benches. Both systems can be found 

 to give money-making results, the soil and the personality 

 of the grower both having much to do in the matter. 



