148 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



April, 1907 



Planting Lily Bulbs for the New York Flower Market in Bermuda 



remarkable manner. Thus, 

 last year was the smallest on 

 record — barely half the dam- 

 age done in 1905. But New 

 York rarely escapes without 

 one thousand dollars' worth 

 of broken glass. 



And there are many other 

 serious risks to set off against 

 the profits — undeniably large 

 as they are. Thus, a coal 

 strike may mean ruin; for 

 while the factory manager 

 can shut down indefinitely, 

 fires must be kept up in the 

 vast glass-covered galleries 

 of delicate roses and lilies. 

 Let the heat but fade for an 

 hour on an Arctic day, and 



The glass, by the way, is a 

 serious item of cost; one hail- 

 storm may destroy almost 

 every pane ; and on that ac- 

 count some insurance was 

 looked for at an early stage 

 of the business. But in the 

 peculiar nature of things, no 

 ordinary commercial concern 

 would take the risk, and so 

 the Horists of all America 

 formed a Co-operative Asso- 

 ciation for Mutual Hail In- 

 surance. 



Each member pays an en- 

 trance fee of two dollars, 

 which entitles him to protec- 

 tion for two thousand square 

 feet, with fifty cents extra for 

 each additional thousand. 

 And in 1905 the association 

 paid out claims to the value 

 of nearly twenty thousand 

 dollars for glass broken by 

 hail. 1 he seasons vary in a 



One L'se to Which Flowers Are Put. A Motor Car Entirely Decorated with Roses and Lilies 



for a Floral Carnival 



the thousands of floral lives 

 are sacrificed. 



Various substitutes for coal 

 have been tried, but with in- 

 different success. Wood, 

 charcoal, sawdust, straw, 

 cane, and cotton stems — all 

 were given a turn ; but crude 

 oil was found the nearest ap- 

 proach to coal in point of 

 efliciency and economy. 



Then there are insect pests 

 to be fought; the hexapoda 

 with solutions of arsenic; the 

 rose-chafer with paris green; 

 the gall fly and red spider 

 with whaleoil soap and to- 

 bacco. Labor, too, is a se- 

 rious item in these days of 



Bunching Narcissus for the New York Market specialization, which is par- 



