CHAPTER XLVIIL 

 GARDENING UNDER GLASS. 



WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH A HOTBED SASH, AND THE USE OF FERTILIZERS IN 



FRAMES. 



This book would not be the valuable Vade Mecum we would like to make 

 it if we gave no attention to the needs of that large class of cultivators who 

 work under artificial conditions, and whose operations are upon a more in- 

 tensive scale than those of any other class of growers. Winter forcing of 

 vegetable crops under glass is a business of rather recent development in this 

 country. Not that it has not long been done in the hothouses of the wealthy, 

 where the products cost their weight in silver, but it is only of recent years 

 that the increase of wealth and population in our large cities has made it 

 possible and profitable to grow vegetables and fruits under artificial con- 

 ditions in winter. The great development of the trucking industry in the 

 South and nearby tropical sections, with modern facilities for transportation, 

 incited the gardeners of the North to greater efforts to meet this competi- 

 tion. Knowing that with skill and capital garden products of all sorts could 

 be produced in finer quality under glass than in the open ground, it only i > 

 mained to secure a clientage which would pay a price for these products that 

 would warrant the extra expense of producing them. And, as in all business 

 where men set themselves earnestly to work and there is a fair amount of com- 

 petition, methods are gradually developed for cheapening the production to 

 meet the increase in competition. In the earlier days of winter forcing under 

 glass the small amount of products grown commanded very fancy prices, and 

 these fancy prices stimulated others to engage in the business, with the in- 

 evitable result that increased production of articles bought by a limited class 

 of people, led to a decrease in price on the market. But the American gar- 

 dener is ever on the alert to meet the difficulties of his profession, and the 

 cheapening of the product simply set him to work at the task of cheapening 

 the production by increasing the area of his work and doing things on a larger 

 scale, using facilities with which smaller cultivators find it difficult to com- 

 pete. Naturally the cultivation of vegetables, fruits and flowers in the cold 

 months first developed in the colder sections of the country, near the large 



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