136 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY 



in which one with a like amount of capital can engage. If 

 the business at first is not large enough to use all his time, 

 he will find no trouble in securing employment in his imme- 

 diate vicinity. There are always some who want such a 

 person to care for their lawns or to give some time to their 

 conservatories. 



In the last ten years the business has doubled, and while 

 many have gone into it, the profit they are making indicates 

 that supply has not kept pace with demand, and that it is 

 not likely to be overdone in the near future. 



Professor B. T. Galloway, in an article in The World's 

 Work, says, "An acre of soil under glass pays fifty times as 

 much as an acre outdoors. There are annually sold in this 

 country six to seven million dollars' worth of carnation 

 flowers. There are no less than eight to ten million square 

 feet of glass in the United States devoted to this flower 

 alone." 



Although Mr. Rockefeller's place at Tarrytown is the 

 largest competitor in the New York market for violets, 

 there is no local monopoly in that, and the local producer 

 with personal attention can do well. 



In the Country Gentleman an account is given of a violet 

 farm on the north shore of Illinois, where two women are 

 supplying local florists. One of them says : "We started our 

 farm last spring in the face of most discouraging prophecies 

 from our friends and the keenest competition of violet 

 growers of New York. But we believed we could be suc- 

 cessful. We had studied the best scientific methods of 

 growing the plants, had imported the best soil obtainable, 

 and built a greenhouse fully adapted to our needs, so we 

 just went ahead and we found it to be a paying proposition. 



" Our first experiment was in using cuttings from the violet 



