220 Commercial Gardening 



and moisture are the great aids to the market grower in producing large 

 crops with the utmost speed and economy. Even then he selects only 

 those kinds that will stand the rough usage of being packed off to market 

 without too much packing, and that will also stand the draughts and chills 

 and variations of temperature to be met with during the winter months 

 in Covent Garden and other markets. Of course glass houses of almost 

 any description, so long as the cultural requirements are attended to, will 

 be useful for Fern-growing, and some very fine crops indeed are turned out 

 every day from most dilapidated-looking structures. 



Apart from heat and moisture, Ferns generally are not lovers of ardent 

 sunshine. During the winter the British climate is none too sunny, tot 

 during the summer months it becomes essential to shade the Fernhouses 

 heavily with limewash or other mixtures to prevent the fronds assuming 

 a yellowish tint that would in the great majority of cases prevent the 

 plants from being sold. 



As all the plants are grown in pots varying in size from 2J to 5 in. 

 and 6 in. diameter, the Fern-grower is a good customer to the maker of 

 pots. To accommodate these the houses are usually fitted up with stages 

 made of wood battens or concrete at the sides and centres also in large 

 houses and house after house is often filled with the same variety. In 

 a market-Fern nursery plants are to be seen in all stages of development 

 from the spores that have just been sown to the finished article packed 

 ready for market. There is a constant change and displacement going on, 

 and as quickly as one house is emptied of its saleable contents it is filled 

 with others in a less-advanced stage. 



Soil. This is of great importance to Fern-growers not only on account 

 of its character, but also of its cost. The best growers have to buy in 

 hundreds of tons of top-spit or loarny soil, and this is stacked up until 

 it has matured and is ready for use. It is often placed in layers 1 or 2 ft. 

 thick, with an alternate layer of well -decayed manure 1 ft. or so thick 

 between, and is thus left for two or three years to settle down and sweeten 

 by exposure to the weather. When required for use it is chopped down 

 with a spade, passed through a sieve, and may have some well-rotted leaf 

 mould or a little peat mixed with it, and perhaps a dash of sharp silver 

 sand. The whole is thoroughly mixed, and is then ready for use at least 

 for potting purposes. 



Of late years the question of sterilizing the soil for Fern-growing has 

 become prominent owing to the outcry made against eelworm and injurious 

 bacteria these being often the imaginary products of men who have never 

 grown a Fern in their lives. Some growers make a point of sterilizing the 

 soil in which spores are to be sown, others sterilize for all purposes, and 

 others again never dream of sterilizing their soil; and each one produces 

 good saleable plants. The sterilizing process may be done by placing the 

 soil in iron receptacles which are heated in the furnace, or if steam or boil- 

 ing water is available the soil may be saturated with one or the other. In 

 this way it is possible to kill eelworm, injurious and perhaps also beneficial 



