84 AMERICAN CARNATION CULTURE. 



addressing the old reliable firm of Hitchings & Co., who keep 

 more fully abreast of all progress of heating, than can be given in 

 this work. 



The internal arrangement of carnation houses, relative to 

 benches, solid beds, overhead surface, and sub- watering has 

 been exhaustively treated under these respective captions. 



I desire to speak of locations for carnation houses, and em- 

 phasize sun-light and aeration as prime factors in growing good 

 carnations. Houses should be located and constructed to afford 

 the plants the fullest extent of these beneficences. The physical 

 anatomy of the carnation plant, the functions of its organs, and 

 years of observation, point to the great importance of these neglect- 

 ed features in houses constructed for growing carnations. 



R. W. Winterstatter's tables, relating to the flowering of car- 

 nations, are the most accurate ever given to the carnation public. 

 They clearly establish the productiveness of bloom; that quality 

 and quantity largely depend on sunlight and ventilation. 



The marvelous mechanical devices for ventilation leave lit- 

 tle to be desired in this particular. Profuse ventilation is an as- 

 cending note in the scale of successful house culture of carnations. 

 Fire in the furnace and the ventilators frequently and reasonably 

 raised, superficially seems a solecism, but profoundly it is phi- 

 losophy, experience, health and vigor for carnation plants. 



All carnation houses should be located to secure the greatest 

 amount and longest duration of sunlight through the winter 

 months. It is an established physiological fact, that light power- 

 fully stimulates the reproductive forces of plants (which implies 

 flowering) at the expense of their vegetative or structural develop- 

 ment. This is illustrated by the immense blooms on small plants 

 grown under unshaded glass during summer months. 



Much importance attaches to little things in growing carna- 

 tions. Little things make " 'quality." "Quality" is the cry of the 

 purchasing public, "quality" has been the shibboleth of those who 

 have won fortune and fame, in growing carnations. 



Butting glass in green houses with an intervening metallic 

 strip was deemed the perfection of mechanical ingenuity, is now 



