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WHEN LACK OF LIQHT 

 ' xt MAKES ROSES LAG 



To make two hlades of grass grow where only one grew before — that 

 famous achievement strikes one as being highly commendable, sometimes, 

 but not especially difficidt. But to increase the crop of roses in the gloom 

 of midwinter — that is a task so big as to require a grower's best skill. 



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I YEAR with punc- 

 I tilious regularity, 

 commencing about 

 January 1 and con- 

 tinuing until the 

 middje of February 

 or thereab outs, 

 trade reports from 

 all the important 

 flower sections east 

 of the Rockies 

 abound with com- 

 ments on the pro- 

 nounced dearth of 

 roses. One reads that wholesale florists 

 are driven almost to the point of desper- 

 ation in futile efforts to fill orders; that 

 each wholesaler is refusing to accept 

 business from retailers who had not 

 been discreet enough to form at least 

 a speaking acquaintance with his prod- 

 ucts before the stringency became a 

 reality instead of an expectancy; that 

 relief is weeks away. 



Unavailing Begrets. 



With mingled feelings of grief and 

 consternation, growers see the daily pro- 

 duction decrease to numbers most mi- 

 nute. They observe with dismay the 

 upward trend of prices, and figure the 

 profits that might be theirs if it had 

 been possible for them earlier in the 

 season to devise some ar- 

 rangement whereby they 

 would have been able to 

 regulate growth to their 

 own particular fancy. And 

 yet, why not? Affiliated 

 with the trade are men 

 of rare genius; men who 

 could, if they would but 

 concentrate their minds 

 upon the project, evolve a 

 method which would in- 

 crease January and Feb- 

 ruary production or at 

 least assure a satisfactory 

 continuity of growth. The 

 latter possibility would at 

 all events place January 

 and February on a par 

 ■with other months as far 

 as production is con- 

 cerned. 



The minimized produc- 

 tivity during the two 

 months in question has 

 been attributed to three 

 potential causes; namely,., 

 lack of sunlight in Novem- ' 

 ber and December, lack of 

 sunlight in January and 

 reb " - 



By CHARLES N. COTTER, 



of Lake View Rose Gardens, Jamestown, N. Y. 



As the majority of explanations of 

 the various phenomena of vegetable 

 organisms are hypothetical and based 

 on the observations of the one expound- 

 ing, it is in part permissible for one 

 to advance his own particular conten- 

 tion concerning the matter in question. 



Old Sol Is King. 



On that basis the following theory 

 is presented, not with the idea that it 

 is incontrovertibly correct, but with 

 the sincere belief of the writer that it 

 is at least as plausible as any theory 

 on the subject at present available, 

 and worthy of being advanced as an 

 argument toward the correct solution 

 of the problem. 



Extension of plant growth is only 

 possible through the influence of the 

 sun's rays. The fundamental element 

 of all the building compounds manu- 

 factured in the cells of the plant (car- 

 bohydrates) is thus created. The 

 leaves through their stomata appropri- 

 ate carbon dioxide from the air and 

 conduct it inward through their canals, 

 to cells, whose protoplasmic contents 

 contain chlorophyl, a substance having 



AVERAGE hours: OF SUNSHINE PER MONTH 



During the four darkest months and the preceding three months, in Mr. 

 Cotter's stEite, New York, and in various other rose growing centers. 



,. ^"ary, or lack of sun- 

 light during the entire 

 four months. 



the capacity, through the action of the 

 sun's rays upon it, to work up this 

 atmospheric gas. The oxygen is sepa- 

 rated from the carbon and a large por- 

 tion of it is expelled back again to 

 the atmosphere from which it was 

 taken. The carbon is retained and, ac- 

 cording to botanical demonstrations, is 

 used in building up the fibrous parts of 

 the plant. 



The carbon and oxygen, after being 

 worked up by chlorophyl under the in- 

 fluence of the sun's rays, are joined 

 by hydrogen to make compounds known 

 as carbohydrates. These are recognized 

 as the most important organized com- 

 pounds in plant life, as they enter into 

 the combination of all other compounds 

 — albumens, starch, etc. — either direct- 

 ly or indirectly. 



Thus the important part played by 

 the sun on fundamental growth is ap- 

 parent. Without it the world would 

 become a bleak and desolate waste. 



When the Plants Start Growth. 



To explain properly the effect of the 

 sun or lack of sun during the months 

 of November, December, January and 

 February, on rose production during 

 January and February, our theory 

 makes it necessary to start our obser- 

 vations and explanations immediately 

 after the carried-over rose 

 bushes are pruned and 

 started into growth in 

 July or August, or, in the 

 case of young stock, from 

 the time they are 

 benched. 



However, as the effect 

 of the sun's rays is the 

 same at both ages of the 

 plant, we will take the 

 carried-over plants as our 

 point in the case. 



After the pruning is 

 finished and water is ap- 

 plied, with judicious addi- 

 tions to the soil in which 

 the roots reside, and after 

 leaf growth has made its 

 appearance with rapid in- 

 crease, then the manufac- 

 turing of building com- 

 pounds, from the nutrient 

 food salts absorbed by the 

 roots from the soil and 

 from the nutrient food 

 gases absorbed from the 

 air by the leaves, begins 

 in the cells of the leaves. 

 Contemporary growth 

 utilizes part of these 

 compounds, and the bal- 

 ance of them is stored 



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