CHAPTER VII. 



CARNATIONS FROM THE FIELD TO THE BEDS OR BENCHES- 

 EARLY AND LATE LIFTING— WET AND DRY WEATHER 

 —BENCH PLANTING— WATERING AND SHADING. 



THERE has been a revolution in the last few years in regard 

 to the time of housing field carnations. Many are now 

 lifted as early as August. They bloom earlier and find 

 a better market. ]\Ir. Hartshorn, an up-to-date grower, com- 

 manding a good market, houses his carnations by the first of 

 July, allowing them only eight or ten weeks of field life and 

 claims he has splendid results. Some growers do not plant in 

 the open ground, but turn their plants out of the pots into bench 

 soil in April and grow them continuously under glass where they 

 commence blooming about the first of October. The advocates 

 of this system and its modifications, assert that they obtain a higher 

 grade of flowers, strike a scarcer market, and realize a better price, 

 which fully compensates for the additional cost and labor the 

 plan involves. 



A solution of the rebus for obtaining a supply of carnation 

 flowers from July to November is involved in the unquestioned 

 law of vegetable physiology, viz: 



'"Each species of plants requiies a certain number of units of 

 heat and light to cojnplete its course of vegetatio7i. The vieari 

 te7nperatufe a7id sunlight multiplied by the 7iumber of days gives the 

 Sinn of heat a7id light requiied for its developeme7it. If the mea7i 

 te7npe7'atu7'e and light is lowe7^ed, the 7iu7nber of days must be 171- 

 C7xased\ if i7icr eased, the 7iuniber of days Tuust be lowej'ed.^' 



A carnation cutting struck in January, will ordinarly bloom 

 in November. If it was struck two, four, or six months earlier, 

 would it not, according to the quoted law, reach its blooming 

 period correspondingly earlier, abating the loss of heat and light 

 for winter days ? I am not aware of well defined experiments 



