1 508 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



Uax 11, 1906. 



den crops. Horse manure, however, is 

 put on profusely and often. By this 

 practice the soil becomes very rich in or- 

 ganic matter and is so exceedingly light, 

 porous and friable that one can readily 

 push one's hand into the soil to a con- 

 siderable depth with little exertion. It 

 might be supposed that soil so heavily 

 manured would in time become undesir- 

 able for growing plants. This, however, 

 does not prove to be the case, since on 

 the whole there are soils that have re- 

 ceived two or three heavy coats of horse 

 manure each year for twenty-five years 

 or more, and they are still producing 

 excellent crops of lettuce. In fact, most 

 lettuce growers consider an old soil the 

 best. 



Watering. 



The practice of watering lettuce plants 

 is somewhat different from that followed 

 by growers of other plants. Some grow- 

 ers water their house only once, and 

 this is just previous to putting the plants 

 in, and no further watering takes place 

 until the next crop is set, or six or seven 

 weeks later. Occasionally hot water is 

 used instead of cold water but in 

 either case the soil is drenched. This 

 method of watering has practically the 

 same advantages as sub-irrigation, since 

 the water is in the lower depth of the 

 soil, where the roots have to seek for it, 

 and in this method of watering the sur- 

 face of the soil soon becomes dry, which 

 is an especially desirable feature in con- 

 trolling certain rots. Some other grow- 

 ers follow this practice in a general way 

 but continue to water the plants in the 

 soil for two or three weeks. Afterwards 

 they stop watering until the crop is 

 mature. This method of watering consti- 

 tutes one of the most important features 

 in reducing or eliminating botrytis rot. 



Temperature. 



The temperature at which a lettuce 

 house should be run varies somewhat ac- 

 cording to the weather conditions and 

 crop, and in the regulation of tempera- 

 ture the skill of the lettuce grower is 

 well illustrated. In general, it may bo 

 stated that the night temperature is 

 from 36 to 45 degrees and the day tem- 

 perature from 65 to 90 degrees. So much 

 depends, however, upon the knowledge 

 and judgment of the plant's require- 

 ment during its development that this 

 range of temperature signifies very little 

 to those who are not familiar with let- 

 tuce growing. A slight misjudgment in 

 the regulation of temperature would 

 cause the ruin of a crop in an exceed- 

 ingly brief time. 



In no other part of the United States 

 has the growing of vegetables under 

 glass reached the point of perfection that 

 it has in Massachusetts. According to 

 W, W. Kawson, there are 1,200 market 

 gardeners who bring produce to Boston, 

 and this number is increasing. Mr. Baw- 

 Bon estimates that there are about 200 

 acres under glass in Massachusetts. 



Geoboe E. Stone. 



zero weather. Two weeks before EaBter 

 this year th«jr had to give pretty strong 

 heat to for*e out their Easter plants 

 Everything came in all right and sold 

 out clean. They were among the few 

 who had to wrap all stock for delivery, 

 Ts the thermometer stood at 26 decrees 

 at the highest on Saturday and on Sun- 

 day morning there was snow, in tne 

 picture Mr. Jones is holding f hydrajugea 

 fn an 8-inch pot. This plant had eleven 

 heads of flowers and a dozen plants from 

 fhe stock had a total of 132 heads They 

 were equally successful in flowering 

 azaleas, rhododendrons ge°i8la«, etc. 

 Bulbous stock afforded them no difiSculty 

 in holding back for Easter. Mr. Eyan 

 has begun work on three new houses 

 each 100 feet long. Two are for carna- 

 tions and one for roses. 



FLOBIST AND THE COAL TRADE. 



The following is an extract from an 

 article which recently appeared in the 

 Black Diamond, the recognized authority 

 in the coal trade: . 



"Every now and then, when a jobber 

 or territorial sales agent finds demur- 

 rage piling up, he bethinks himself of 

 some greenhouse owner who will take 

 the coal off his hands at a concession. 

 There are a few who will appreciate 

 the full extent of the consumption of fuel 

 in greenhouses, and take full advantage 

 of the business opportunity it presents, 

 but the many make no effort to till this 

 profitable field, far underestimating its 

 importance, , . •, i. 



"The public quite generally fails to 

 appreciate the extent to which the cut 

 flower industry has developed in recent 

 years, but coal men should be well versed 

 in the faets, though many are not. Cook 

 county, Illinois, grows more flowers than 

 any one county in the United States; 

 then comes Philadelphia county, Penn- 

 sylvania; then Middlesex county, Mas- 

 sachusetts; then Kings county. New 

 York; then Hudson county. New Jer- 

 sey; then Queens county. New York. 

 But these counties, which are the pro- 

 ducing areas for the wholesale markets 

 of Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and 

 Boston, represent only a small fraction 

 of the florist establishments of the 

 country, although it is a matter of cen- 

 sus record that Cook county, Illinois, 



produced in 1899 to within $76,000 in 

 value as many flowers ag the whole state 

 of Ohio. Several greenhouse establish- 

 ments in Cook county bum from seventy- 

 flve to 150 cars of coal a season, with one 

 or two which bum 175 cars and one 

 burned 7,000 tons of Pocahontas coal 

 last winter. There are many which bum 

 twenty-five to forty cars of coal a sea- 

 son. Indeed, one coal man told the 

 writer recently that he sells the florists 

 north of Chicago from 600 to 1,000 cars 

 of coal a year. 



"The census enumerators in 1899 

 found 30,417 greenhouse establishments 

 with an area of 96,230,420 square feet 

 of glass. By far the larger number 

 grew vegetables, but much the larger 

 part of the glass, 68,030,666 square feet, 

 was devoted to flowers, which makes it 

 look very much as though the flower 

 growers were more prosperous and ex- 

 panding faster than the vegetable grow- 

 ers. The total investment of the flower 

 growers was $52,462,419, and their total 

 sales in 1899, $18,505,881 at wholesale 

 value. 



"A conservative estimate is that the 

 florists' business in all respects, glass 

 area, value 6t sales, coal consumption, 

 etc., has increased at the rate of fifteen 

 per cent a year since the census, which 

 would make the present glass area for 

 flowers around a hundred million square 

 feet, or nearly 25,000 acres! 



"The census office went to the trouble 

 of trying to figure out the value of the 

 heating apparatus in each greenhouse, 

 with the result of provoking considerable 

 merriment among the men who own the 

 plants when the figures were published. 

 It would have been easier and of more 

 importance to have ascertained the an- 

 nual coal consumption. The record of 

 one of the largest Cook county growers 

 shows that in the winter of 1903-4 he 

 burned approximately fourteen pounde 

 of Pocahontas coal for each square foot 

 of glass area in his place. Another 

 grower's record shows thirteen pounds 

 per square foot, using part Carterville 

 and part Pocahontas. One of the best 

 authorities in America on rose growing 

 states that for a winter like 1903-4 it is 

 necessary, with average coal and average 

 greenhouse, that is, fairly tight, to figure 

 on eight tons of coal for 1,000 feet of 



IN THE ADIRONDAOCS. 



P. H. Ryan, of Saranac Lake, N. Y., 

 is one of the progressive florists of 

 the mountain region and the accompany- 

 ing illustration shows the excellence of 

 the stock he produces. The picture was 

 taken just before Easter and shows, in 

 the background, Chas. M. Jones, who is 

 grower for Mr. Eyan. They have very 

 little sun in winter and many weeks of 



Easter Stock of P. A. Ryan, Saranac Lake, N. Y. 



