THE PROFITS OF FLORICULTURE. 191 



per running foot, or $300 or $400 for a house of 50 feet. 

 But something else will be needed besides the house, and 

 sunken pits or cold frames should be erected parallel with 

 the east side of the green-house and connected with it. A por- 

 tion, say half, of these, should be excavated to the depth 

 of 2 feet, and used as a sunken pit for Roses, &c., as de- 

 scribed in the chapter on Roses ; the cold frame portion, 

 which is not sunken but made level with the soil, can be 

 used to grow the hardier sorts of flowers, as Pansies, Dai- 

 sies, Pinks, &c. I here again repeat that the Rose, unless 

 grown to force for winter flowers, is easily injured by fire 

 heat, which it must necessarily receive if placed in the 

 green-house, in which are grown a variety of plants that re- 

 quire fire heat. 



These pits and cold frames should be covered up care- 

 fully, either with shutters or mats, during severe weather 

 in winter, and care taken that all water is thoroughly 

 drained off from them. These sunken pits and cold 

 frames of 25 feet each will cost say $100, which, togeth- 

 er with the purchase of stock and coal to last through 

 the winter, would make the expenditure to this date, No- 

 vember, $600 or $700, leaving $300 or $400 for expenses in 

 winter, or until sales open in spring. If the plants 

 have been handled with even average skill, the sales 

 should by June give a profit of at least 50 per cent on 

 the capital invested, supposing the plants to be sold at the 

 average retail rates. 



I am not prepared to say what the profits on the capital 

 invested are when business is done on a large scale, the 

 articles grown, the manner of selling, and economy of 

 management, being so varied that in this, as in all other 

 occupations in life, we have all degrees of success. But the 

 broad fact is beyond question that the profits of the business 

 will compare favorably with the general run of business 

 in which the same capital is invested. 



One fact, very flattering to our florists in this country 



