Decbmbku 10, lOO'J. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



33 



One of the Bose Houses of the Pittsburg Cut Flower Co. 



(>arth is the surest preventive. Also, he 

 finds grafted plants are seldom affected 

 by the eel-worms; all his experience with 

 this pest has been confined to own-root 

 plants. In grafting throughout stronger 

 wood is used than is always the case when 

 raising plants from cuttings, and per- 

 haps this is one of the reasons why our 

 grafted plants are best. 



About half the establishment is de- 

 voted to roses. In the case of the carried- 

 over beds he removes as much of the sur- 

 face soil each year as can be done with 

 safety, and replaces it with fresh com- 

 post. "When growth is brisk and roots 

 active, the beds are surfaced with a good 

 mulching of stock-yards manure. He gets 

 capital, sweet, fresh loam, the thin sur- 

 face from rolling land. And right here 

 is the advantage of a big farm out in 

 the country! He top-dresses the field 

 heavily with rotted manure, plows it 

 over thinly, and harrows and cross-har- 

 rows it to break it up. This he uses at 

 once, throwing aside the rougher parts. 

 These tougher sods are carted to a pile 

 and composted with manure. The old soil 

 emptied from the greenhouse benches 

 is spread over the skinned fields and 

 cropped to grass or grain to mellow and 

 sweeten it, and such crops are the envy 

 of all the old farmers around there. 

 After two or three years this soil is 

 ^gain fit for skinning for greenhouse 

 u.se. 



The Carnations. 



Mr. Burki is discriminating. While be 

 tries all of the new and promising carna- 

 '"^ns, the money-makers alone, be they 



Old 



or new, are retained. And thus 



niany a noble flower, magnificent else- 

 ^'here, is ruthlessly dropped at Bakers- 

 ' wn. His main crops are Victory, Bea- 

 ''11,' Winona, Winsor, Lady Bountiful, 

 '■iichantress, White Enchantress, Rose- 

 Ink Enchantress, White Perfection, Ukw- 

 " '1 ^nd White Lawson. There are half 

 ' dozen others on trial- 



Ooe carnation house on the slope is 

 ' "x3;50 and consists of three 20-foot 

 ' 'dge-and-furrow spans. The benches 

 'e five feet wide, six- inches deep, on 

 ' inch close-together' tile boTtoms. "An- 

 ' her new carnation house is 51x396. It 



has seven benches. How beautiful these 

 houses are, with each bench a foot higher 

 than the one in front of it, thus receiv- 

 ing great advantages in light and sun- 

 shine! A full span house on level ground 

 is 51x350. It is one of Lord & Burn- 

 ham's iron-frame construction, has seven 

 benches, and is now a glorious sight. 



Propagation is in progress now and 

 will be continued for some months. The 

 young plants for next summer's use, 

 after leaving the propagation benches, 

 will be grown in pots till they get into 

 4-ineh. Planting in the' benches indoors 

 begins in May, and planting in the fields 

 outside, the end of April, where the 

 plants remain until July, when they are 

 transferred to the greenhouses. Mr. 

 Burki claims there is more money in the 

 early indoor planted stock than in the 

 double work of outside and indoor plant- 

 ings. The indoor ones come into bloom 



earlier than the others. Besides, in a 

 big place like this it is impossible to pre- 

 pare for and plant everything in a 

 month, even in two months. Besides, 

 there is another thing to consider: In 

 early summer some of the houses may 

 still be in good bearing, and it takes 

 considerable nerve to throw out a house 

 of blooming plants to make room for new 

 plantings. Last year they set 100,000 

 plants in the field. Here also the carna- 

 tions have fresh ground; he never plants 

 in two successive years in the same place. 

 Here again is the advantage of the many- 

 acre farm. 



The roses and carnations are cut in 

 morning and forenoon, sorted in the pack- 

 ing room, and placed in jars of water in 

 the storage rooms until the night of the 

 following day, when they are packed and 

 shipped. The rose storage room is 40x60, 

 and is run at 48 degrees, the ammonia 

 system of artificial refrigeration main- 

 taining this steadily. The carnation stor- 

 age house is an arched- over, underground 

 pit, 18x40, floors, walls and ceiling being 

 entirely of concrete. There is a venti- 

 lator at each end. The temperature in 

 winter runs about 48 degrees; in summer, 

 64 degrees. Carnations keep here splen- 

 didly. Here I may also mention that 

 they have another cold storage house, an 

 underground concrete pit, where they 

 store peony blossoms in summer. By 

 means of their artificial refrigeration 

 plant the temperature in this pit is kept 

 at 38 degrees, and Mr. Burki says he 

 can keep the peony blossoms in it for 

 several weeks in excellent condition. 



Liquid Manure. 



Mr. Burki is a firm believer in good 

 living, abundance to eat and drink; a 

 half -starved man cannot do a good day's 

 work ; neither can a half-starved plant pay 

 for its room and keep. So he uses enor- 

 mous quantities of manure on his land 

 and liquid manure on his benches. 



As a manure pit he has a concrete open 

 air basin 40x80 on a hilltop. Rainwater 

 fills this tank, and in dry weather he 

 pumps water into it. Through pipes con- 

 trolled by valves the liquid flows from 

 this basin to a concrete tank in one of 



Side Hill Carnation House of the Pittsburg Cut Flower Co. 



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