CHAPTER XVI 



Ether Forcing Without a Greenhouse 



An easy way for the amateur who has no greenhouse to 

 bloom azaleas, lilacs, and other plants — Great 

 opportunity for the window gardener to discount 

 the seasons. 



The ability to force plants out of season, 

 without the application of heat, but by 

 freezing by means of ether, is not a theory. 

 It has been done successfully by several 

 people; but I must confess to having had 

 no experience of it myself. Still, the account 

 of it given by Mrs. Flora L. Marble in 

 The Garden Magazine for September, 1905, 

 is circumstantial enough, and convincing. 

 To quote: 



"Success crowned our attempt at forcing 

 by ether. We had flowers for Christ- 

 mas just like those of the stores which had 

 been forced by the expensive florist's green- 

 house, heated by steam or water. Our 

 apparatus was only a little bottle of ether, 

 an old washboiler for small plants, and an 



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