February 29, 18S8.] 



Garden and Forest. 



twice that sum, The present rate of growth in the business 

 is about 25% per annum, which proves that it is Iceeping 

 well abreast of our most tlourishing industries. 



The business, too, is conducted by a better class of men. 

 No longer than thirty years ago it was rare to find any other 

 than a foreigner engaged in commercial floriculture. These 

 men had usually been private gardeners, who were mostly 

 uneducated, and without business habits. But to-day, the 

 men of this calling compare favorably in intelligence and 

 business capacity with any mercantile class. 



Floriculture has attained such importance that it has 

 taken its place as a regular branch of study in some of our 

 agricultural colleges. Of late years, too, scores of young 

 men in all parts of the county have been apprenticing 

 themselves to the large establishments near the cities, and 

 already some of these have achieved a high standing ; for 

 the training so received by a lad from si.xteen to twenty, 

 better fits him for the business here than ten years of 

 European experience, because much of what is learned 

 there would prove worse than useless here. The English 

 or German florist has here to contend with unfamiliar con- 

 ditions of climate and a manner of doing business that is 

 novel to him. Again he has been trained to more delib- 

 erate methods of working, and when I told the story a few 

 years ago of a workman who had potted 10,000 cuttings in 

 two inch pots in ten consecutive hours, it was stigmatized 

 in nearly every horticultural magazine in Europe as a 

 piece of American bragging. As a matter of fact this same 

 workman two years later, potted 1 1, 500 plants in ten hours, 

 and since then several other workmen have potted plants 

 at the rate of a thousand per hour all day long. 



Old world conservatism is slow to adopt improvements. 

 The practice of heating by low pressure steam will save in 

 labor, coal and construction one-fifth of the expense by old 

 methods, and nearly all the large green-house establish- 

 ments in this country, whether private or commercial, have 

 been for some years furnished with the best apparatus. 

 But when visiting London, Edinburgh and Paris in 1885, 

 I neither saw nor heard of a single case where steam had 

 been used for green-house heating. The stress of compe- 

 tition here has developed enterprise, encouraged invention 

 and driven us to rapid and prudent practice, so that while 

 labor costs at least twice as much as it does in Europe, our 

 prices both at wholesale and retail, are lower. And yet I 

 am not aware that American florists complain that their 

 profits compare unfavorably with those of their brethren 

 over the sea. 



Commercial floriculture includes two distinct branches, 

 one for the production of flowers and the other for the pro- 

 duction of plants. During the past twenty years the growth 

 in the flower department of the business has outstripped 

 the growth of the plant department. The increase in the 

 sale of Rosebuds in winter is especially noteworthy. At the 

 present time it is safe to say that one-third of the entire 

 glass structures in the United States are used for this pur- 

 pose ; inany large growers having from two to three 

 acres in houses devoted to Roses alone, such erections cost- 

 ing from $50,000 to $100,000 each, according to the style 

 in which they are built. 



More cut flowers are used for decoration in the United 

 .States than in any other country, and it is probable that 

 there are more flowers sold in New York than in London 

 w^th a population four times as great. In London and 

 Paris, however, nearly every door-yard and window of 

 city and suburb show the householder's love for plants, 

 while with us, particularly in the vicinity of New York 

 (Philadelphia and Boston are better), the use of living 

 plants for home decoration is far less general. 



There are fashions in flowers, and they continually 

 change. Thirty years ago thousands of Camellia flowers 

 were retailed in the holiday season for$i each, while Rose- 

 buds would not bring a dime. Now, many of the fancy 

 Roses sell at $1 each, while Camellia flowers go begging 

 at ten cents. The Chrysanthemum is now rivaling the 

 Rose, as well it may, and no doubt every decade will see 



the rise and fall of some floral favorite. But beneath these 

 flitting fancies is the substantial and unchanging love of 

 flowers that seems to be an original instinct in man, and 

 one that grows in strength with growing refinement. 

 Fashion may now and again condemn one flower or 

 another, but the fashion of neglecting flowers altogether 

 will never prevail, and we may safely look forward in the 

 expectation of an ever increasing interest and demand, 

 steady improvement in methods of cultivation, and to new 

 and attractive developments in form, color and fragrance. 

 Peter Henderson. 



How to Make a Lawn. 



U 



A .SMOOTH, closely shaven surface of grass is by far 

 the most essential element of beauty on thegrounds 

 of a suburban home." This is the language of Mr. F. J. Scott, 

 and it is equally true of other than suburban grounds. A 

 good lawn then is worthworkingfor, andif it havea substantial 

 foundation, it will endure for generations, and improve with 

 age. 



We take it for granted that the drainage is thorough, for no 

 one would build a dwelling on water soaked land. No labor 

 should be spared in making the soil deep, rich and 

 fine in the full import of the words, as this is the stock from 

 which future dividends of joy and satisfaction are to be drawn. 

 Before grading, one should read that chapter of Downing's 

 on " The Beauty in Ground." This will warn against terrac- 

 ing or leveling the whole surface, and insure a contour with 

 "gentle curves and undulations," which is essential to the best 

 effects. 



If the novice has read much of the conflicting advice in 

 books and catalogues, he is probably in a state of bewilderment 

 as to the kind of seed to sow. And when that point is 

 settled it is really a difficult task to secure pure and living seeds 

 of just such species as one orders. Rarely does either seller 

 or buyer icnow the grasses called for, especially the finer and 

 rarer sorts ; and more rarely still does either know their seeds. 

 The only safe way is to have the seeds tested by an expert. 

 Mr. J. B. Olcott, in a racy article in the " Report of the 

 Connecticut Board of Agriculture for 1886," says, "Fifteen 

 years ago nice people were often sowing timothy, red top and 

 clover for door-yards, and failing wretchedly with lawn-mak- 

 ing, while seedsmen and gardeners even disputed the identity 

 of our June grass and Kentucky blue-grass." 



We have passed beyond that stage of ignorance, however ; 

 and to the question what shall we sow, Mr. Olcott replies : 

 " Rhode Island bent and Kentucky blue-grass are their foolish 

 trade names, for they belong no more to Kentucky or Rhode 

 Island than to other Northern States. Two sorts of tine 

 Agrostis are honestly sold under the trade name of Rhode 

 Island bent, and, as trade goes, we may consider ourselves 

 lucky if we get even the coarser one. The finest — a little the 

 finest — Agrostis canina — is a rather rare, valuable, and elegant 

 grass, which should Ije much better known by grass farmers, 

 as well as gardeirers, than it is. These are both good lawn as 

 well as pasture grasses." The grass usually sold as Rhode 

 Island bent is Agrostis vulgaris, the smaller red top of the 

 East and of Europe. This makes an excellent lawn. Agrostis 

 canina has a short, slender, projecting awn from one of the 

 glumes ; Agrostis vulgaris lacks this projecting awn. In 

 neither case have we in mind what Michigan and New York 

 people call red top. This is a tall, coarse nafive grass often 

 quite abundant on low lands, botanically Agrostis alba. 



Sow small red top or Rhode Island bent, and June grass 

 (Kentucky bhie grass, if you prefer that name), Poa pratensis. 

 If in the chaff, sow in any proportion you fancy, and m any 

 quantity up to four bushels per acre. If evenly sown, less will 

 answer, but the thicker it is sown the sooner the ground will 

 be covered with fine green grass. We can add nothing else 

 that will improve this mixture, and either alone is about as 

 good as both. A little white clover or sweet vernal grass or 

 sheep's fescue may be added, if you fancy them, but they will 

 not improve the appearance of the lawn. Roll the ground 

 after seeding. Sow the seeds in September or in March or 

 April, and under no circumstance yield to the advice to sow a 

 little oats or rye to " protect the young grass." Instead of 

 protecting, they will rob the slender grasses of what they most 

 need. 



Now wait a little. Do not be discouraged if some ugly weeds 

 get the start of the numerous green hairs which slowly follow. 

 As soon as there is any thing to be cut, of weeds or grass, mow 

 closely, and mow often, so that nothing need be raked from the 

 ground. As Olcott puts it, " Leave one crop where it belongs 



