CHAPTER I 



CHOOSING A LOCATION 



THE first essential when locating a Rose growing estab- 

 lishment is good soil and plenty of it. Land that will 

 grow good corn, or any ordinary garden crop, may be made 

 to grow good Roses. Buy as much land as you can afford at 

 the start, for this generally proves a good investment in any 

 case. Small lots of land will do for the town florist who grows 

 for a retail trade and buys a large part of his goods, but for 

 the wholesale grower twenty-five acres is about as small an 

 amount of land as it is wise to commence with. There are 

 successful men with less, but most of them would like to ob- 

 tain more land, as they feel the pressing need of obtaining an 

 unlimited amount of good, fresh soil for their houses. The 

 most ill advised action any man can take is to buy land with a 

 lot of drawbacks in the belief that he can overcome all the ob- 

 jections, later, by hard work. A little foresight in locating is 

 better than a great deal of hindsight later on. 



An average level field, large enough to build houses east and 

 west, at least 300 feet long, is desirable. If grading on an ex- 

 tensive scale has to be done it will add considerably to the 

 first cost of building, at a time, too, when it is necessary to 

 avoid every possible extra expense. It will be found that the 

 cost of grading will, in ordinary cases, be about one dollar for 

 every one hundred cubic feet of material used if the haul is 

 less than half a mile and the filling easily obtained. In some 

 cases all that is necessary is to remove the sod and loam and 

 erect the houses without any filling. The ground should be 

 high enough and have natural drainage so that it will not lie 



