POTHOS 



POTS 



2777 



in. long, linear, flat: blades decurved, much shorter than petiole, 

 linear-lanceolate, acuminate: spathe 1 }- 2 in. long, linear to linear- 

 lanceolate; spadix stipulate, 2-4 in. long, eylindric, green: berries 

 smooth, scarlet, about ?jin. long. S. China. B.M. 7744. 



L. H. B. 



POTHUAVA: Jtchmea. 



POT MARIGOLD: Calendula. 



POTS. Of the three firms of interest to horticul- 

 turists that are eligible to the Century Club because 

 of one hundred years or more in the same business, are 

 A. H. Hews A: Co., potters, and J. M. Thorburn & Co., 

 of New York, and D. Landreth & Co., of 

 Philadelphia. This indicates the age of the 

 flower-pot business in this count ry. 



The first entry in the oldest Hews account 

 book reads as fofiows: Weston, April 19, 1775, 

 Lemuel Jones, to Ware, debtor: 2s. 8d. 

 From 1788 to 1810, a period of twenty-one 

 years, there is a continuous account. The i ~*< 

 charges within that entire term cover about 

 as many pages as are now often entered in a 

 da}- ; and the amount in dollars and cents does 

 not compare with single sales of the present 3150. 



time. Through all the years up to 1807 the 

 term "flower-pots" does not once appear, and 

 it is much to be regretted that the first sale of flower- 

 pots and the name of the purchaser cannot be found. 



In 1861, after war was actually declared, business 

 conditions were much depressed. The members of the 

 Hews firm felt sure that there would be no demand for 

 flower-pots, they being more of a luxury than a neces- 

 sity, and that the factory must close. At that time the 

 writer succeeded in securing permission to make his 

 first venture as salesman "on the road." Going first to 

 C. M. Hovey, he secured what was a good order for 

 those times, some 10,000 or more pots for the spring 

 trade of 1862. Not once after that, during the Civil 

 War, was the firm able, in the spring and fall rush, to 

 fill all their orders for flower-pots. It is not that these 

 orders were remarkably large or numerous, but they 

 were beyond the capacity of the firm. In 1866, prices 

 were a third or a half higher than they are today. The 

 firm first got fairly under way with machinery for mak- 

 ing small flower-pots in 1869. 



Until about 1864 or 1865, common flower-pots 

 throughout the world had always been made by hand 

 on the potter's wheel. There have been, indeed, many 

 different forms of this wheel, but it had always been 

 propelled by hand- or foot-power. When, in the early 

 fifties, a wheel was made to be propelled by the foot, 

 with two sizes of pulleys and a balance-wheel whereby 

 the speed of the wheel was increased in the proportion 

 of three to one, it was thought that perfection had been 

 reached. Much time, though very little money, had 

 been spent previous to the fifties in attempts to make a 

 pot machine. It was left to William Linton, of Balti- 

 more, an experienced practical potter, to perfect and 

 patent the first machine. From him two machines 

 were purchased and the exclusive right to use them in 

 Massachusetts. In a short time great improvements 

 were made on his patent. America was far ahead of 

 Europe in this kind of machinery, as also in improved 

 machinery in general. The machine made only small 

 pots, up to about 5 inches in diameter; and while it 

 had previously taken an experienced man to make his 

 thousand 3-inch pots in ten hours, a smart boy without 

 any previous experience whatever could make 3,000 on 

 the machine in the same time. 



When the standard pot was adopted, about twenty- 

 five years ago, the hand-process was practically aban- 

 doned in the principal potteries in favor of what is tech- 

 nically called the jigger. This is a revolving disc pro- 

 pelled by machinery. These discs, or jigger-heads, are 

 made of different sizes and fitted with various rings. 

 Plaster molds are made in very large numbers for each 

 size of pot, and the larger standard pots (6- to 12-inch) 



are all made at the present time in these molds. The 

 old methods have now passed. 



The making of the pot is not its only cost : previous 

 to that comes the preparation of the clay. The hundred 

 years from 1765 to 1865 saw no improvement in the pro- 

 cess of preparing it for use. It was ground in a wooden 

 tank or tub, propelled by an ox. The various other 

 processes remained as crude in 1865 as they had been 

 the century previous: the drying, firing, and all con- 

 nected with the manufacture. The capacity of our 

 flower-pot drying-rooms of today far exceeds the 



Pots of various sizes. All are "standard" pots except the rimless 

 one at the right, which is a "rose pot." 



entire product of any one year prior to 1865. At that 

 time the custom of using wood for drying and firing pots 

 still continued. It required three cords of white pine and 

 from thirty to forty hours' labor thoroughly to fire a 

 small furnace. Today three tons of bituminous coal will 

 fire five times as much pottery in fifteen hours. 



Grades of clay used in the manufacture of flower-pots 

 are almost as numerous as the banks in which they are 

 found, and require many different methods of treat- 

 ment. To separate the stones from the clay has always 

 been a very perplexing as well as expensive problem. 

 The clay is first plowed by means of a horse and cap- 

 stan, whereby one horse will do the work of twenty 

 men with picks. This clay is then loaded in dump- 

 carts and carried to the mill, where it is shoveled 

 through a disintegrator, which expels the larger stones 

 and crushes the smaller ones. It then falls on an end- 

 less belt and is carried to a revolving drier. This is a 

 western device, with which, by the use of crude petro- 

 leum for heat, from 20 to 25 per cent of moisture is 

 evaporated from the clay, and while it passes through a 

 direct blaze of white heat there is sufficient moisture 

 all the time to prevent it from burning. (Burning of the 



3161. Fern-pans. A form of pottery useful for small bulbs 

 and many shallow-rooted subjects of which spreading masses are 

 desired. 



clay at this stage would make it worthless.) To demon- 

 strate this point beyond question, paper and dry shav- 

 ings have been passed through with the clay, and they 

 came out without even scorching. 



From the drier, the clay goes into large bins, where it 

 must remain twenty-four hours, so that portions of it 

 which have become too dry and hard may absorb the 

 moisture from that not dry enough. From these bins 

 it is carried to whippers, which beat the clay without 

 further crushing the stone. From the whipper it goes 

 to the revolving screens, and thence to the elevators. 



The next process is mixing, or, as it is termed, "pug- 



