10 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



OCTOBEK 3, 1907. 



grass and no flower steins. Such plants 

 are termed ' ' wild. ' ' No cuttings should 

 ever be taken from them, as they will 

 invariably grow into similar plants. I 

 have been told that by cutting such 

 plants back hard they can be induced to 

 throw flower stems. While I do not know 

 the cause of plants behaving in that 

 way, I have never attributed it to any 

 such thing as club-root. You ought to 

 be able to tell whether it is inheritable, 

 by observing the new varieties you buy 

 each season. If this trouble remains 

 only among the older varieties, of which 

 you propagated your own stock, then 

 such may be the case. But, on the other 

 hand, if the newer importations are af- 

 fected, also, then it is likely in the soil 



The dome of the boiler, weighing hun- 

 dreds of pounds, was blown northward 

 at least 600 feet and lit in an open 

 space, thus clearing the entire expanse 

 of the greenhouses, comprising 400,000 

 feet of glass. Another piece, weighing 

 300 pounds, crashed through the roof 

 of the stable, but did not hit any of the 

 stocky At the boiler-room the 90-foot 



smospstsijkstands apparently intact. 

 Two boilers remain in position, but one 

 is bent inward and apparently ruined, 

 while the other one is seriously dam- 

 aged. The other two boilers were also 

 lifted clear of the wreck by the blast. 

 The exploding boiler is completely gone, 

 ripped into shreds. 



The wrecked battery served the rose 



Rose Range at George M. Kellogg't After the Explcsion. 



and I would get my soil some distance 

 away from the old source. A. F. J. B. 



KELLCXJCS PLANT WRECKED. 



Boiler Explo.ion at Pleasant Hill. 



At 6 a. m. Thursday, September 26, 

 a boiler exploded at the establishment 

 of George M. Kellogg, Pleasant Hill, 

 Mo., wholly demolisliirig the boiler-she<l 

 and breaking about .')0,ObO square feet of 

 glass, besides wrecking the framework 

 of some of the houses. There was no 

 loss of life, as the fireman had left the 

 shed and the men had not yet reported 

 for work. After two days Mr. Kellogg 

 said that at the lowest estimate the dam- 

 age to the plant would be $35,000, to 

 say nothing of the loss of stock in the 

 houses. 



The boiler that exploded was 80-inch, 

 tubular, with a capacity of twenty 

 pounds of steam. It was fired the day 

 before for the first time this fall and 

 was kept going all night. A second 

 boiler was also under steam, but the 

 other three in the battery were unused. 

 The fireman, who had left the room, in- 

 sisted that his steam was gauging well 

 within the limit, but the fact that the 

 boiler, of quarter-inch steel, was ripped 

 as if it were so much cloth, indicates 

 a tremendous pressure, and Mr. Kellogg 

 reports that it was afterwards proven 

 the gauge was shut oflf the boiler and the 

 valve letting the sicam into the houses 

 was closed tight. Houses reeled and 

 rocked with the explosion, which came 

 with a snappish roar, and many people 

 in the town ran out, thinking that an 

 earthquake was at hand. 



and carnation division of the institu- 

 tion, and the force of the explosion lift- 

 ed tiie ends of the houses clear olf the 

 grountl, the concussion breaking every 

 I)ane of glass. The rain of iron and 

 s'.one which fell upon the range broke 

 glass all over the place and here and 

 there heavy objects did damage to roof 

 and benches as well. 



Rebuilding Not Delayed. 



Tlie same morning Mr. Kellogg went 

 to Kansas Oity, estimating that he re- 

 quired over 1,000 boxes of glass to re- 

 glaze his houses, and the next day the 

 first car reached Pleasant Hill. Two 

 small boilers were procured for tem- 



porary use and are now doing duty. The 

 greatest diflSculty was in securing lum- 

 ber to do anything more than a tem- 

 porary job of repairing. 



Mr. Kellogg takes his loss philosophic- 

 ally and on the following Saturday, Sep- 

 tember 28, wrote: "Trusting in the 

 Lord, I am still hard at work and hope 

 that cold weather will hold off for an- 

 other week, after which I think I will be 

 fairly well closed in." 



GROWING OF CUT FLOWERS. 



(A paper by F. R. Plersou, of Tarrytown, 

 N. Y., read before tUe Congress of Horticul- 

 ture at the Jamestown exiiosition, September 23, 

 1907.] 



The development in the commercial 

 growing of cut flowers in this country 

 during the last thirty years has been 

 phenomenal. Wh^t might be dignified 

 as the commercial growing of cut 

 flowers practically had its beginning less 

 than thirty years ago. Prior to that 

 time the quantity of flowers produced 

 was insignificant, the quality, compared 

 with present standards, inferior, and 

 the methods of culture crude in the ex- 

 treme. With the increase of wealth, 

 there has been a marvelous progress in 

 the production of cut flowers, both in 

 the quality and the immense quantities 

 produced. 



It seems incredible now that the 

 writer, less than thirty years ago, was 

 advised by one of the foremost florists 

 of that time not to go into the cut 

 flower growing part of the business, be- 

 cause it would soon be overdone. This 

 seems the more incredible when one con- 

 siders that today many single establish- 

 ments are producing more cut flowers 

 than the entire greenhouse production 

 of the United States probably amount- 

 ed to at that time. 



Thirty Years Ago. 



New York, which is one of the great- 

 est cut flower centers in the world, thir- 

 ty years ago depended on Boston for its 

 supply of roses. TTie leading varieties 

 of roses in those days were Safrano, 

 Isabella Sprunt and Bon Silene, all of 

 which have practically disappeared, hav- 

 ing been superseded by improved sorts, 

 and today these one-time popular roses 

 are almost unknown. In carnations at 

 that time the leading variety was Presi- 

 dent De Graw. A long-stemmed carna- 

 tion was then unthought of, as many 

 buds being allowed to develop on one 

 stem as possible, and tiie flowers were 

 cut with no stems. Loose, long-stemmed 



Carnation Range Adjoining the Wrecked Boiler-thed at Pleasant Hill, Mo. 



