374 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



December 28, 1905. 



his glijss from Bellcvuo, where lio was 

 troubled with smoke from the faetorieH 

 whidi were {^rowing into the iieighbor- 

 hood, all to tiie Crystal Farm, where the 

 company now has 160,000 square feet in 

 twelve liousos, fourteen dwellings for 

 employees, several gas wells furnishing 

 fuel, and two oil wells. Mr. and Mrs. 

 Burki witii their family of four children 

 live now at Crystal Farm. His liold- 

 ings in this company are about $140,- 

 000 and his j)laee in BcUevue, which he 

 still owns, tiiougli the greenhouses are 

 removed, luis become very valuable, as a 

 residence locality. Besides these he has 

 other investments. 



Mr. Burki is a man whose ,iudgment 

 is sought on nil matters pertaining to 

 the business ; however, he is of a modest 

 disposition to a fault. He is a charter 

 member of the Pittsburg and Allegheny 

 Florists' and Gardeners' Club, a member 

 of the American Carnation Society and 

 a life member of the S. A. F. He at- 

 tends most of their meetings. 



THE BIRCH-BARK STORE. 



The accomiTanying illustrations are 

 from photographs taken at The Rosary, 

 New York, J. H. Troy, manager. During 

 the past season the store has been com- 

 pletely refitted, inside and out, and every 

 part both inside and out, except that 

 occupied by glass, has been covered with 

 light birch-bark. The effect is not only 

 out of the ordinary, but it is very pleas- 

 ing. There are few stores in New York 

 City which have attracted more favor- 

 able comment than the Bosary since it 

 was decked up in its new attire. 



GROWING CROPS UNDER GLASS. 



[A paper by B. T. Galloway. Chief of the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry, reprinted from the 

 Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture, 

 where It was one of sevfral papers under tht; 

 general head, "Opportunities In Agriculture."] 



With the rapid growth of population 

 and the s-hifting of industrial centers 

 there have been constant charges in ag- 

 ricultural practices. A study of the 



most closely allied with the factory. No 

 country can continue to be prosperous 

 where agriculture is the sole dependence, 

 nor can any country hope to be inde- 

 pendent and enjoy the best fruits of its 

 industry where manufacturing consti- 

 tutes the chief source of wealth. The 

 farm and the factory must go side by 

 side in order to bring about the greatest 

 progressive, intellectual and industrial 

 development. 



Within the last decade there has been 

 an enormous increase in our manufactur- 

 ing interests, so that it is not surprising 

 to find that the output from the factory 

 now constitutes sixty-five per cent of our 

 annual production of wealth. A study 

 of the figures presented to us in the an- 

 nual reports of the Department of Agri- 

 culture and other branches of the Gov- 

 ernment dealing with statistical matters 

 shows that coincident with the develop- 

 ment of factories in a community there 

 has been a corresponding increase in the 

 value of farms and farm lands, as well 

 as of the products of the farm. The 

 great era of manufacturing upon which 

 this country is now entering is bound to 

 have a beneficial effect upon agriculture, 

 for aside from the great possibilities of 

 agricultural development alone, without 

 reference to other industries, it is clear 

 that as factories continue to increase in 

 number and enlarge their output, agri- 

 culture must necessarily grow to meet 

 these conditions. 



Probleois for American Farmer. 



Nearly all the best arable land of the 

 country has now been taken up, and 

 those who are most vitally concerned 

 with soil production realize that hence- 

 forward the main problem for the man 

 who intends to make cultivation of the 

 soil his occupation will be not so much 

 a question of great acreage as of greater 

 production from a given acre. If Ameri- 

 ca hopes to continue her phenomenal de- 

 velopment, she must be able to produce 

 not orly the enormous quantities of food 



Interior of the Rosary, New York. 



world's history shows that while agri- 

 culture has been, and will continue to 

 be, the primary basis of wealth, it has 

 reached its highest development whtre 



required for her own increasing indus- 

 trial population, but a large share of the 

 food for other nations as well. 



The average production of wheat in 



this country is little more than twelve 

 bushels per acre; for corn, the average 

 production is twenty-five and one-half 

 bushels per acre; for oats and barley, the 

 average production is twenty-eight and 

 twenty-six bushels per acre, respectively. 

 During the past thirty years there has 

 been a constant variation of these aver- 

 ages for different parts of the country. 

 In the great grain-producing areas of the 

 west the average has been decreasing. 

 In certain sections of the east, on the 

 other hand, the average has been grow- 

 ing higher. The important work carried 

 on by this department, as well as by the 

 state experiment stations, is doing much 

 to bring about larger yields from a giv- 

 en acreage. A study of agricultural sta- 

 tistics, especially for the past twenty 

 years, will show that where states and 

 state authorities have been active in ag- 

 ricultural propaganda work, and where 

 the experiment stations and colleges have 

 paid marked attention to the farms and 

 farmers' interests, there has been a ma- 

 terial benefit, manifested by new methods 

 of crop production, new industries and 

 diversification, and marked improvement 

 in the value of the crop for a given area. 

 Recognizing, therefore, the necessity 

 for greater diversifications and greater 

 production per acre, the question arises, 

 in what manner can this result best be 

 brought about? With the increasing 

 growth of our cities and the accumula- 

 tion of great numbers of people in com- 

 paratively small areas, with the exten- 

 sion of railroads, telephone and telegraph 

 systems, rural free -delivery, and trolley 

 lines, there will be an increasing de- 

 mand for many agricultural products 

 which must of necessity be grown by 

 intensive methods; that is, such products 

 will be of a more or less perishable na- 

 ture, and for this reason they will have 

 to be grown comparatively close to where 

 they are to be consumed. 



This necessarily gives rise to another 

 proposition, namely, that to grow crops 

 close to the point of consumption re- 

 quires their production on land in the 

 immediate vicinity of cities and towns, 

 the value of which is greatly above that 

 of the average farm lands. The more 

 valuable the land the greater the need 

 for economizing every foot of it and the 

 greater the need for thorough knowledge 

 of all the factors governing plant growth. 

 The population of twenty of our larg- 

 est eastern cities and their contributory 

 territory will aggregate 15,000,000 peo- 

 ple. Both population and wealth are 

 constantly increasing, and in consequence 

 there is a growing demand for something 

 more than the mere necessities of life. 

 Fruit, flowers, and vegetables are needed 

 to meet the requirements of life, and 

 these, to be furnished at their best, must 

 be grown for the most part close at hand 

 and produced in such a way that the 

 largest return can be secured from a giv- 

 en area of land with a minimum risk. To 

 accomplish this result it must be prac- 

 ticable to control to a large extent cli- 

 mate, soil, moisture, temperature, and, 

 in a measure, light. The only way this 

 can be done successfully and practically 

 is through the medium of glass houses. 



A few years ago structures of this 

 kind were looked upon more or less gen- 

 erally as a means for supplying the 

 tables of a comparatively few wealthy 

 private individuals or to serve for the 

 growing of ornamental plants which had 

 no strictly economic value. At the pres- 

 ent time this view of the subject is rap- 



