BUNCHING. 149 



flowers are put in a bunch and the bunch is then 

 backed up with from twenty to twenty-five leaves 

 arid tied with violet-colored cord. It is customary 

 in most establishments to do this work directly in 

 the beds. One or two men pick and tie the 

 flowers temporarily in bunches of fifty. Another 

 more expert in shaping the bunches unfastens 

 the temporary tie and after arranging the flowers 

 in symmetrical and compact form, picks and 

 adds the leaves and the bunch is then tied perma- 

 nently. After tying, the bunches are placed in 

 pans of water six inches deep, with cross-bars of 

 laths or other strips to hold the flowers and leaves 

 out of the water. Placed in water in this way the 

 flowers soon stiffen up, and, if kept cool, they lose 

 little of their odor. 



Another method, and one we prefer to follow, 

 is to pick the flowers and tie them roughly in 

 bunches of one hundred. They are then carried 

 immediately to a cool bunching room and placed 

 in water. When all is ready they can be bunched 

 by experienced hands and rapidly sorted at the 

 same time. Working in this way two men can 

 pick and bunch from a thousand to twelve hundred 

 an kour. This does not mean merely throwing 

 the flowers together and tying them with a string, 

 but it involves the exercise of taste and judgment 

 in having a symmetrical, yet compact bunch taste- 

 fully surrounded by leaves arranged so as to pre- 

 sent a neat margin of green. The question of 



