ORNAMENTALS 



PAPER PLANTS 



503 



from these establishments are many others, as 

 nurseries and truck-farms, that grow and sell flow- 

 ers as a secondary business. There are numberless 

 private places giving much attention to ornamen- 

 tals. The glass surface reported by florists (about 

 one-third greater than the land surface on which 

 the structures stand) was 68,030,666 square feet, 

 in 6,070 establishments. More than half this glass 

 was in the north Atlantic states. New York lead- 

 ing with 10,690,777 square feet, and Pennsylvania 

 second with 8,811,711 square feet. 



Floriculture is a concentrated and high-class 

 business, notwithstanding the fact that many 

 establishments are shiftless and profitless. The av- 

 erage size of flower- and plant-farms in the census 

 year was less than seven acres. On these farms, 

 the value of land and its improvements was some 

 $28,000,000, while the value of the buildings was 

 above $22,500,000. The implements were rela- 

 tively low, being only $1,366,887 worth. The 

 amount expended for labor was more than $4,000,- 

 000, or about one-seventh the value of the land 

 and between one-fourth and one-fifth the value of 

 the salable product. The labor cost was about $100 

 per acre. 



The risks in floriculture are great because of the 

 perishable nature of the products, the changes in 

 taste, the expensiveness and unsubstantial char- 

 acter of buildings, and the cost of heat and other 

 maintenance. The difference between the whole- 

 sale and retail prices is very marked. The busi- 

 ness is now largely broken up into specialties, one 

 establishment devoting itself mostly to carnations, 

 another to violets or roses, and the like. Although 

 the number of species of florists' plants runs into 

 thousands, the numbers that are commercially im- 

 portant are relatively few, and, for these special- 

 ties, societies of growers are usually organized. 

 The cut-flower industry has made great headway 

 in recent years, with roses, carnations and violets 

 as the leading crops. In the growing of all these 

 specialties, great perfection of manual and me- 

 chanical skill has been developed. This skill is 

 constantly becoming more rational and less rule- 

 of -thumb. The workmanship is passing out of the 

 hands of the old-time apprenticed gardener who 

 was trained to grow a great variety of plants for 

 personal or household use. The glasshouses have 

 come to cover acres of land rather than square 

 feet, and they are simple, direct and completely 

 utilizable. The notions of greenhouse building that 

 were current twenty-five years ago are now largely 

 outgrown for commercial establishments (see Pigs. 

 179 to 188). The utilizing of cool storage for some 

 of the products has had great effect. The develop- 

 ment of the city flower store, the delivery- 

 wagon system, and the wholesale trade have 

 changed the whole aspect of the business. The 

 breeding of plants in one way and another has 

 long been an important factor in flower-growing. 

 The greater number of authentic historic plant 

 hybrids are between greenhouse and other garden 

 plants. The underlying problems of plant nutrition 

 and of soil fertility and efiiciency are yet little 

 studied,, however, in their practical applications to 



the florists' business. The florist makes his soil. 

 He depends little on concentrated fertilizers, but 

 greatly on manure, rotted sod and other humous 

 ameliorators. 



The organization phases of floriculture have lit- 

 tle relation to the farm management and crop 

 management problems that are the proper theme 

 of this Cyclopedia ; the floricultural subjects and 

 plants are discussed in many phases in the Cyclo- 

 pedia of American Horticulture ; therefore the sub- 

 ject may not be further discussed here. The best 

 literature will be found in the trade papers, and 

 the reports of national societies. There are recent 

 good books devoted to special plants, but none de- 

 voted to the whole subject of commercial floricul- 

 ture ; in fact, the subject is scarcely homogeneous 

 enough for conspectic treatment. The business of 

 growing ornamental plants is increasing rapidly, 

 and it will continue to increase because the desire 

 for beautiful objects rises with the accumulation 

 of means and the progress of civilization. Every 

 observant person will have noticed that every year 

 greater attention is paid to the care and adorn- 

 ment of home grounds. This practice is beginning 

 to extend far into the open country. 



PAPER-MAKING PLANTS. Figs. 728-731. 

 By F. P. Veitch. 



The farmer is not called on to grow crops for 

 the purpose of supplying the raw materials used 

 for making paper. The cutting of timber and the 

 sale of straw for this purpose have been incidental 

 to other farm work, filling in the gaps between 

 more profitable work. But conditions are chang- 

 ing: the wild growths and the wastes -of other 

 industries heretofore used are supplied at con- 

 stantly increasing cost, and the time is now come 

 when the farm may be called on to contribute 

 more largely to these supplies, both with its waste 

 materials and with its crops. 



Paper can be made from any fibrous vegetable 

 material. The materials commonly used, how- 

 ever, are not numerous, and are obtained from 

 flax, cotton, hemp, esparto, manila, jute, woods, 

 straws of cereals. Sunn hemp, rhea, China grass or 

 ramie. New Zealand hemp, coconut fiber, adansonia, 

 agave, and bark of the paper mulberry. Other ma- 

 terials which are used to a certain extent, or for 

 various reasons may be considered promising, are 

 bamboo, sugar-cane and corn-stalks. There is also 

 a long list of cultivated and wild grasses, rushes of 

 all kinds, reeds, banana fiber, barks of trees, com- 

 mon broom and heather, tobacco- and cotton-stalks; 

 beet-pulp waste, peat, and many miscellaneous 

 materials from which small quantities of paper 

 have been made experimentally. 



The woods most used are spruce, poplar, hem- 

 lock, Cottonwood, balsam and pine. A number of 

 others are now being employed in the manufacture 

 of paper, possibly not in sufficient quantity to 

 require individual mention, but enough to indicate 

 that, as the necessity arises, many other woods 

 will also be used for this purpose. Indeed, there is 

 every reason to suppose that, with proper modiflca- 



