102 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1900. 



ing the field of industry, this conception changed and for the 

 first time glass farming began to be regarded seriously as a 

 department of agriculture. 



Raising flowers in greenhouses for market is a profession for 

 which women are proving themselves especially adapted. It is 

 a business that has to be learned like any other ; but, given a 

 little experience, added to natural qualifications, such as perse- 

 verance, energy and common sense, success is sure to follow. 

 The plant I own and am running, was started on two hundred 

 and fifty dollars, and I have built up a large, well paying busi- 

 ness. With $250.00 and an acre of land a practical woman of 

 good health can earn a living for herself from the beginning, 

 and keep enlarging her plant all the time besides. Given an 

 acre of land, the first requisite is of course a greenhouse; a 

 modest one can be built for one hundred dollars, and a rough 

 heating apparatus put in for fifty. The cost of plants and seeds 

 is slight, as the large firms make easy terms for the trade, and 

 the other expenses, such as tools, fertilizers, cold frames for 

 starting plants, etc., would amount to little on so small a scale. 



One great advantage is that the returns are so quick. With 

 a greenhouse in running order by the first of September, crops 

 of several kinds can be marketed before Christmas. The 

 chrysanthemums come first, then follow violets, carnations, 

 tulips, hyacinths, narcissus, calla and Easter lilies, spirea, 

 roses, etc. The secret of success is to utilize every inch of 

 space. In a vegetable house the tables can be filled with 

 lettuce, or cucumbers, or tomatoes, while rhubarb and mush- 

 rooms can be grown on the ground underneath. 



A good head for planning is a necessity, as no time must be 

 wasted between crops. It is necessary to know what kind of 

 fertilizer suits each crop best. Some thrive best with bone 

 meal, some with leaf mold, or pasture turf. There are special 

 fertilizers for special crops. The location of such a venture as 

 this is more than half its success. At first thought one would 

 think that the neighborhood of a large city was the best place ; 

 but this is not necessarily so, as one is at the mercy of com- 

 mission agents and middle men. 



