1070 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



Mabch 30, 1905. 



.with it aud chopped up and well mixed 

 this spring. Plant not later than June 

 15, a few weeks sooner if your frame is 

 .empty. Keep the red-spider away by 

 daily syringing and the black fly de- 

 stroyed or, better, prevented by tobacco , 

 dust. The situation south of a rose 

 house will be a hot one and you should 

 have the m«ans of shading on all bright, 

 sunny days. Nothing is better or quick- 

 er applied than a roll of cheese-cloth, 

 but let it be at least a foot above the 

 plants, so that there is a free and abun- 

 dant circulation of air on the plants. 



Put your glazed sash on the frame by 

 the end of September. "We have seen 

 perfect novices succeed with violets won- 

 derfully the first year or two. We have 

 also, alas, seen veterans fail most won- 

 derfully after years of experience. All 

 about violets cannot be told in a few 

 lines and it is well worth buying a book 

 on them, written by a specialist. I meant 

 to add, start with a young plant propa- 

 gated this spring from a cutting, and 

 we think there is no variety so good as 

 the Imperial, an improvement on the 

 beautiful Marie Louise. W. S. 



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VOES OF A RURAL RETAILER. 



An article in last week's Review 

 moves my spirit to utterance. It, the 

 above mentioued spirit, has been simmer- 

 ing for several ^veeks, or even months, 

 and at last it must find a vent even like 

 the giant geyser of the Yellowstone 

 country. 



First, to take things as they come, 

 Phil's answer No. 36 in the Philadelphia 

 notes. It's all right, of course it is, but 

 what an awful lot of trouble this de- 

 partment store-street-fakir business does 

 make for us poor small town retail strug- 

 glers, even if it does make a good outlet 

 for the commission house surplus. Just 

 look at it from our point of view a 

 minute. Only a very, very few, compara- 

 tively, raise enough cut stock for our 

 demand. We order from some whole- 

 saler and pay 2, 2V^, 3 or even 4 cents 

 for carnations. To save our lives we 

 can't get more than 75 cents per dozen, 

 at the. outside, no matter what size of 

 flower or length of stem we offer; 50 

 cents is the average limit. And at that 

 this is what we hear, generally over the 

 'phone: 

 "How mucli are carnations?" 

 ' ' Fifty cents a dozen. ' ' 

 "Good gracious! You're awfullv 

 high!" 



"No ma'am. That is very low for this 

 time of year." 



"WHiy, I was in such or such a city 

 last week and they were selling at 35 

 cents. ' ' 



"Pur stock is very large and we 

 guarantee it fresh. It will last much 

 longer than the stock yon saw at such 

 low prices. ' ' 



"Why they were itnnien>ie. ureat. big 

 thinjjs with jireat long stems." 



"We CTnof se'I our stock at such 

 pricfis." "Well. Ill take half n dozen 

 at that price." (Kniphasis on "that.") 

 Xou we know the stnflT that was of- 

 fered at such a price might possiblv 

 last through dinrer if you bought it 

 late in the afternoon, hurried home, kept 

 it in a cool place till readv to sit down 

 to the table, and did not hav;> so verv 

 much to eat so you could sot through 

 soon, 1>nf you might talk till you piled 

 un overtime 'jihore fees' skv high and 

 you pould not convince the partv that 

 you were not |)ractically "^aud-bnEr- 

 ping" tliem ♦<) the au'ount of tlic differ- 

 ence in pi ice tliey claim. 



Then there's another bewildering ques- 

 tion: The small town producer with 

 1.000 or l..")00 feet of glass who does 

 grow his own stock, carnations especially, 

 such as they are! Flowers that take 

 stretching to reach the 2-inch line on 

 the gauge. Stems that wobble most 

 helplessly if they reach over a foot 

 in length. They also sell at from 25 

 to 35 cents per dozen. How they man- 

 age to make salt at that price, with 

 fuel and labor where they are at pres- 

 ent, is certainly too great a problem for 

 this weak brain to solve. But that's not 

 the question. You show carnations lap- 

 ping the 3-inch line out of sight, stems 

 eighteen to twenty inches, nice and stiff, 

 with nice crisp foliage clear up. 



"How much!" 



"Fifty cents." 



"Why so and so in Scrabbletown 

 never asks more than 35 cents!" 



That very stock probably cost you 3 

 tents, and you know "so and so's" 

 stock won 't touch it, but — what are you 

 going to do about it, as the bandit said 

 when he held a man up with his own 

 pistol? 



Won 't some of the floral sages please 

 pive "balm of Gilead " or wise coun- 

 sel of some sort as to a remedy, verbal 

 or otherwise, for this trul.v vexing 

 trouble (worse than Primula obconica 

 poisoning for most of us). It reallv 

 tempts to strong language, but — well, 

 the Editor will know why that remedy 

 is impossible here. F. E. C. 



PIPING VIOLET HOUSES. 



We have five houses each 17x100, de- 

 tached, ridges eight feet high and side 

 walls two and one-half feet. There is 

 sixteen inches of glass in* the south wall 

 of each house ; solid beds are used. 

 The boiler has ample capacity, but can 

 l)e set no deeper than two feet in the 

 ground because of poor <lrainage. How 

 should the houses be piped to maintain 

 40 detrrees in zero weather? We have 

 on hand a lot of 2-inch and 3-inch ])ipe 

 which we would like to use. and we 

 should prefer to have the water at 

 IfiO degrees at the boiler for ease of 

 firing. W. C. P. 



T take it that .vou wish to run your 

 boiler on a low rather than a hiqh heat. 

 TOO rather tlian ISO degrees. That will, 

 of course, require more piping in the 



houses to maintain the required tem- 

 perature, but it may be more economi- 

 cal to install more pipe and pay less for 

 firing. With the water in the boiler at 

 160 degrees each of the houses 17x100 

 will require 490 feet of radiation to 

 maintain a temperature of 40 degrees. 

 In order to provide heat for this area 

 of pipe the risers through the houses 

 should not be smaller than 2% inches. 

 Since you state that you have 3-inch pipe 

 on hand this mi^ht be used for the ris- 

 ers or flow pipes. If 2-inch pipe is used 

 in the returns, seven pipes will be need- 

 ed the length of each house. This will 

 provide a slight excess of radiation, but 

 none too much to be within the safety 

 limit. 



In 'order to heat these houses the 

 boiler should have a heating capacity 

 of at least 4,000 feet of radiation. An 

 expansion tank placed eight to ten feet 

 above the highest point in the system 

 and connected with the main return to 

 the boiler by a %-inch pipe should give 

 sufficient pressure for the system. The 

 expansion tank itself should have at 

 least forty gallons capacity and fifty 

 gallons would be better. With the boiler 

 so near the surface of the ground I 

 think it would be wise to pipe tibe houses 

 with the main flow pipe under the ridge 

 and running to the mo^t distant point in 

 each house before dividing to supply 

 the seven 2-inch returns. 



If it is desirable to use 3-inch pipe 

 in the returns four pipes only will be 

 required. it. C. C. 



CHICAGO. 



TheMai^et 



For several weeks past it has occurred 

 that Tuesday was the dullest day of the 

 period, the market being burdened with 

 stock, with few buyers. Such was the 

 case last week, with business showing a 

 gradual improvement until Friday night 

 saw many large, if cheap, orders going 

 out, with the market well cleaned up on 

 Saturday and encouragingly brisk on 

 Monday. Tuesday again saw an absence 

 of demand and the receipts exceedingly 

 heavy. The thermometer registered 75 

 degrees and values were very unstable, a 

 big lot of stock having to be carried 

 over. 



The principal change in market condi- 

 tions during the past week has been in 

 Beauties. Tlie spring crop has come on 

 very rapidly and there are now large 

 supplies of long-stemmed, fancy stock 

 which is good value at quoted rates, but 

 which can be bought cheaply where a 

 quantity can be used. It looks very 

 much as if Beauties were going to com- 

 mand low prices for the next month, 

 with a probability that Easter will see 

 a large supply. 



There is little apparent change in the 

 rose market. There apj)ear to be more 

 Maids than Brides. Liberty is not in 

 large supply and a considerable part of 

 the receipts are short-stemmed. Meteor 

 is seldom seen. Chatenay is of excellent 

 quality. Uncle John is fine. The quali- 

 ty of teas in general is very high but a 

 continuance of the warm weather will 

 soon reduce their size. The carnation 

 market is weak, with large receipts but 

 fairly active business except on Tuesday. 

 A low limit is set by what the special 

 sale stores are willing to pay for what- 

 ever accumulation may be on hand Fri- 

 day afternoon. 



There is a good demand for single 



