TEMPERATURE AND MOISTURE. 



35 



expressed the opinion that no labor-saving appliance we 

 had ever used was so satisfactory as this ; two years have 

 passed since then, and, with increased work to do, we are 

 still more than satisfied. One man pumps, another regu- 

 lates the water and sprinkles it over the plants; each 

 green-house, of 100 feet long by 11 feet wide, is watered 

 thoroughly in 15 minutes ; the changing of the hose from 

 one house to another re- 

 lieves the workman from 

 the labor of pumping for 

 a few minutes, so that 

 when the change is made 

 of the hose to another 

 house, he is ready to 

 start afresh again. By 

 this mode of watering, 

 we not only give the 

 plants a thorough drench- 

 ing, but we save at least 

 three-fourths of the labor 

 that is usually spent in 

 watering with the water- 

 ing-pot. Some may ob- 

 ject to this rough-look- 

 ing way of watering 

 plants; to such we say, 

 even with the danger of 

 being thought to be 

 puffing our own wares, come and look at the results of 

 such rough work. We have now practised it for the past 

 four years, and have lost thousands of dollars by not 

 having done so from the beginning. 



Two rules are laid down by nearly all writers that I 

 have read on floriculture, in reference to the water to be 

 used for plants; one, that it must be rain, or at least 

 " soft " water ; the other, that the water should be of the 



Fig. 11. WEST'S FORCE PUMP. 



