194 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Hyiicintlis grown is simply onornions. Cut flowers amounting at 

 wholesale prices to one million dollars in value pass through the 

 hands of commission dealers annually, and the amount sold b}' 

 growers for the market outside of the commission dealers must be 

 as large, if not larger. 



From fifteen to twenty thousand dollars is invested annually in 

 plants of new varieties of roses. Mr. Thorpe estimates that there 

 are six hundred and thirty acres of ground covered with glass in 

 this countr}', .about one half of which is devoted to the growing of 

 plants and one half to the production of cut flowers. There are 

 probabh' not less than fifteen thousand individuals engaged in 

 growing plants (for sale or for cut flowers) and in florists' stores. 



Not less than fifty million plants are sold annually, and the im- 

 portation of bulbs and plants must amount to nearly, if not quite, 

 half a million dollars in value. Tuberose bulbs, which we for- 

 merh' imported, we now export in large quantities; and the ex- 

 portation of Pampas Grass has also grown to be quite a large 

 business. One and a half millions of plumes is probably a low 

 estimate. 



But these figures give little idea of the amount of business or 

 number of people directly or indirectl}' dependent upon the cut 

 flower trade. Consider the material used in constructing green- 

 houses, such as glass, iron pipe and fittings, hot water boilers and 

 steam apparatus ; the labor employed and the nione^' invested in 

 the manufacture of plain and fancy flower pots, rubber hose, fer- 

 tilizers, insect exterminators, and horticultural tools of all kinds ; 

 also the capital invested and the number of people employed in 

 the making of ornamental baskets ; and the value of baskets of 

 foreign manufacture, of wheat, immortelles, etc., which are im- 

 ported annuall}'. One estimate places the value of coul auinially 

 consumed at nearly four hundred thousand dollars. Tons of iron 

 are made into wire and wire designs for florists' use ; man}' thou- 

 sands of pounds of tin-foil, also cords of wood (in the form of 

 toothpicks for stemming flowers, and of plant stakes), are items of 

 considerable account ; while the rents paid for stores and the 

 money paid in wages to help of both sexes must amount to a large 

 sum. Enormous quantities of moss, wild ferns, ground pine, 

 laurel branches, etc., are gathered in the woods every year, this 

 one industry giving continuous employment to many people in the 

 country. The Boston market alone consumes annually two mil- 



