Vfi"' '"^i .-,' ^Tr. ,""-,» 



FEBROAEY 29, 1912. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



16 



New HotiMs of Dobbs & Son, Auburn, N. Y. 



pected, as in our experience with Bea- 

 con this season. We have a part of a 

 bed, about 600 plants, planted to this 

 variety. We let them come in with a 

 midwinter crop of blooms, and they 

 have been blooming since early Decem- 

 ber. About January 1 we went through 

 them and robbed them of all the good 

 cuttings they carried. This has been 

 repeated every time a good crop came 

 in sight. Inasmuch as Beacon has al- 

 ways heretofore split a considerable 

 percentage of the calyxes with us dur- 

 ing midwinter, we expected that they 

 would nearly all do the same act under 

 this treatment. To our great satisfac- 

 tion and surprise, we have this winter 

 cut a smaller percentage of splits from 

 these plants than we ever did from 

 Beacon in other years — less, even, than 

 we have from Enchantress. I merely 

 cite this instance to show that a case 

 of splitting can be brought on easily 

 and the grower frequently finds it dif- 

 ficult to explain the reason. 



A. F. J. B. 



A BIG CASNATION HOUSE. 



W. G. Dobbs, of the firm of Dobbs 

 & Son, at Auburn, N. Y., has been try- 

 ing his skill in the operation of a re- 

 volving-lens camera, and as a result he 

 has pictures of the Dobbs establishment 

 from various points of view. Two of 

 the photographs are here reproduced. 

 One of them shows part of the range of 

 houses, with the big new carnation 

 house in the foreground; the other 

 shows the interior of the same carna- 

 tion house. 



This house was built by the Geo. M. 

 Ciarland Co., of Des Plaines, 111. It is 

 42x250 and is said to be one of the 



finest greenhouses in the state. Espe- 

 cially noteworthy is the fact that a 

 house forty-two feet wide can be built 

 without posts or supports of any kind. 

 Truss construction accomplishes this, 

 and Mr. Dobbs says he believes the 

 houses thus built are as strong as those 

 on posts. If this is true, it is certain 

 that much less shade is cast, and with 

 sunlight at a premium, as it is during 

 the winter, the truss method naturally 

 holds great interest for the grower. The 

 sides of the house are built of pressed 

 concrete blocks, with rock face, and the 

 offices, boiler rooms, stacks, etc., all 

 have the same finish. There are ten 

 beds in the house, each 6 x 120 feet and 

 six inches deep, and all of concrete con- 

 struction. The posts, sides and bottoms 

 were poured in one continuous mass. 

 These beds are all planted with carna- 

 tions — about 13,500 plants. The boiler 

 room and coal cellars are all fireproof, 

 being entirely of concrete; even the 

 roofs are concrete, with expanded metal 

 reinforcing. 



Dobbs & Son state that they are 

 thinking seriously of incorporating dur- 

 ing this coming season, as they believe 

 that a corporation has many advan- 

 tages for the transaction of a business 

 of any size. 



EUBOPEAN NOTES. 



Hayward Mathias, Lucerne, Stub- 

 bington, England, one of the founders 

 and the first secretary of the Per- 

 petual Flowering Carnation Society, 

 died suddenly from heart failure, Feb- 

 ruary 10. His end was not unexpected, 

 as he had been in failing health for a 

 year and had resigned his secretarial 

 duties on that account. By all who 

 knew him he was held in the highest 



esteem for his unfailing courtesy and 

 devotion to his duties. 



Carnation British Triumph, raised by 

 C. Engelmann, Saffron Walden, has re- 

 ceived an award of merit from the 

 Eoyal Horticultural Society. 



The total membership of the Eoyal 

 Horticultural Society, England, Decem- 

 ber 31, 1911, was 12,839, an increase 

 of 796 as compared with the same date 

 in 1910. The subscriptions paid 

 amounted to £17,965. The annual 

 meeting of the National Chrysanthe- 

 mum Society showed a year of good 

 progress also. 



The annual trip and congress of the 

 Federation of French Nurserymen, re- 

 cently referred to in The Eeview, 

 passed off with great eclat. For nine 

 days at the end of January the French 

 nurserymen made merry under the azure 

 skies of southern France and Italy, 

 while Europe generally was shivering 

 in sle'Ot and rain. They discussed rail- 

 way freights, the export flower trade 

 and other subjects pertaining to their 

 calling. They were in a joyous mood 

 and introduced much humor into their 

 discussions. But Frenchmen are al- 

 ways vivacious, and their confreres in 

 the south entertained them with vins 

 d'honneur, aperitifs d'honneur, cham- 

 pagne d'honneur and banquets amid 

 the palm groves of Hyeres, the mimosa, 

 rose and carnation plains of Cannes and 

 Nice. So there is excuse for their 

 joviality, and — tell it not in Gfath! — 

 the Casino of Monte Carlo had attrac- 

 tions for a few after the strenuous dis- 

 cussions on railway freights, etc. There 

 is an enormous acreage devoted to flow- 

 er growing around Cannes and Nice, 

 and visitors saw the fields in the zenith 

 of their flowering season. Bee. 



•"■.". ~ :.';iq f.-ff'i ^ • .^c, 



Caroatioa Houie F«rtir4wo Feet Widt, Baflt by Dobbs & Son, Auburn, N. Y. 



