GARDENING UNDER GLASS 351 



Easter. We have never used mats on Narcissus and hyacinths, as the simple 

 cover of the sash is all sufficient here. Roman hyacinths are very unsatisfac- 

 tory in the South in the open ground, from the fact that they inveterately 

 endeavor to bloom during the coldest weather we have. But in frames they 

 are very fine, superior in bloom to any forced greenhouse spikes. The White 

 Italian blooms in the open air in late March, and in the frames can be pro- 

 tected and kept till Easter. But let no one suppose that frames can be man- 

 aged for any crop in a careless manner; or that anything less than a careful 

 manipulation of the soil and the heavy application of fertilizers will give 

 good crops. An acre in glass-covered frames will give four good men all the 

 work they can attend to. Intensive gardening means rich soil, high manur- 

 ing, a large investment of capital on a small area, and the closest attention 

 to details. Then it will pay in a way that the ordinary trucker has hardly 

 dreamed of ; but if any of these things are neglected, the gardener had better 

 let intensive winter work alone. 



FRAMES FOR THE COMMERCIAL FLORIST IN THE SOUTH. 



With all that has been said on the subject of the use of frames in the 

 South we have hardly touched the value of the simple sash in a mild climate. 

 The work of propagating and selling plants at wholesale is being rapidly 

 divided into specialties. Few of the larger firms engaged in the culture of 

 the flowering plants now grow all the plants they catalogue. Certain sections 

 have been found to be particularly well adapted to certain cultures, and there 

 growers have entered into the culture of certain plants to the exclusion of all 

 others, and are thus able to produce a superior class of plants at rates that 

 make it more profitable for others to buy from them than to grow them them- 

 selves. The specialization of culture is more general among the largest firms 

 in the trade than among the retail florists in small towns, who must keep up a 

 variety. The large wholesale florist finds that he can devote his glass to a cer- 

 tain specialty, such as palms, and he grows palm trees by the million, and 

 looks to other specialists for his carnations, roses and other things which he 

 can buy more cheaply than he can grow them in competition with his palms ; 

 thus there has gradually developed a division of labor. A certain locality 

 on the Hudson River has been found to be particularly well adapted to the 

 growing of violets in great perfection, and growers there are devoting wide 

 fields to the violet in summer and the other men in the trade buy from them 

 rather than raise them in smaller lots for their own trade. The soil and 

 climate of California have been found to be admirably adapted to the perfec- 

 tion of seed, both of vegetables and flowers, and the trade is centering there. 



