362 



THE EDITOR'S OUTLOOK. 



the vegetable growers at Arlington, near Boston, 

 are truck farmers or market gardeners ! 



Of course the bulletin contains many valuable 

 figures, even though it does not allow of generali- 

 zations. The average wages paid in various parts 

 of the country and the number of laborers employ- 

 ed, the cost of seeds and plants per acre, the kinds 

 and costs of fertilizers, and the figures of ship- 

 ments from local points, are most valuable. The 

 investigation finds that 534,440 acres are devoted 

 to "truck-farming," and that these are worked by 

 75,866 horses and mules, 216,765 men, 9,254 wo- 

 man and 14,874 children, and that the value of 

 tools is ^8, 971, 206.70. The most important truck 

 regions lie in a narrow belt along the Atlantic coast, 

 and along the Mississippi from Chicago to the Gulf. 

 More particular attention might have been given 

 to southern Illinois with profit, as this region is one 

 of the leading trucking centers. The source of 

 supply of vegetables for northern markets advances 

 to the northward during the growing season at the 

 rate of thirteen miles per day. 



FLORICULTURE 



T 



HE BULLETIN on floricul- 



ture, by the same author, is 

 eminently satisfactory. It shows 

 that flower growing has already reached enormous 

 proportions, especially in the older portions of the 

 country and in California. The business is in a 

 thriving condition, as evidenced by the fact that the 

 number of establishments is rapidly increasing. 

 In 1800 there was but one commercial florist in the 

 United States. Between 18 10 and 1820 three es- 

 tablishments started ; eight more were started in 

 the next decade, 25 in the next, 45 between 1840 

 and 1850, 96 in the next, 313 in the next, 998 be- 

 tween 1S70 and 18S0, and 1,797 in the last decade. 

 There are 4,659 commercial establishments in the 

 country now (i8go), using 38,823,247 square feet 

 of glass and heated with apparatus valued at'S38,- 

 355,722.43. Tools are valued at §1,587,693.93. 

 New Jersey has the largest floricultural business of 

 any state in proportion to its size. There is not 

 one establishment, so far as learned, in Idaho, Ne- 

 vada and Indian Territory. 312 of these establish- 

 ments are owned and conducted by women and 

 1,958 women are engaged in the business in the 

 United States. This indicates that women may 

 here find a delightful means of livelihood. The in- 

 ception of this investigation of the floriculture of 

 the country is said to have come from Mrs. Porter, 

 wife of the Superintendent of the Census, and the 

 following statement has gone the rounds of the 

 press : The bulletin "is understood to be the re- 



sult of a suggestion made by the accomplished wife 

 of the Superintendent of the Census with a view of 

 opening up a new avenue of employment for wo- 

 men. Supt. Porter, from the day he received his 

 appointment until now, has been worn down by piti- 

 ful appeals from women for employment. Without 

 straining facts, it might be said that the proportion 

 of rejected women applicants was as high as ninety- 

 nine out of a hundred. Many of those disappoint- 

 ed took a woman's chance and appealed to the wife 

 of the superintendent, who, seeing so many help- 

 less females in the world, turned her mind to devis- 

 ing some new opening to employment. The result 

 was the special report on floriculture which now 

 appears and which was made at her suggestion." 



The total value of the floricultural product for 

 one year was $26,211,805.77, of which $14,175,- 

 328.01 was for cut-flowers and the remainder for 

 plants. Of the plants sold, 49,056,253 were rose 

 bushes and 38,380,872 were hardy plants and 

 shrubs, while the total number of all plants sold 

 was 240,272,417. It required 18,805 people to 

 grow these plants and cut-flowers, at an aggregate 

 wage of $8,483,657. All this business required an 

 outlay of $1,161,168.31, for advertising and the 

 issuing of 21,055,694 catalogues, and the estimated 

 freight antl express bills on outgoing shipments was 

 $1,086,904.60. 



These figures are startling in their immensity. 

 While it has been well understood that floriculture 

 had made great advances, few dreamed that the 

 aggregates would be so great, or that the business 

 had assumed so much importance among the indus- 

 tries of the country. 



"Of the plants sold, the demand in the northern 

 and eastern states is greatest for geraniums, coleus, 

 roses, pansies, verbenas, heliotrope, carnations, 

 chrysanthemums, palms, ferns and fuchsias, nearly 

 in the order named. In the south the demand is 

 for roses, chrysanthemums, geraniums, coleus, 

 palms, and ferns ; while California shows the de- 

 mand to be largest for roses, carnations, chrysan- 

 themums, geraniums, palms and pansies. For 

 cut-flowers roses lead, followed closely by carna- 

 tions." 



Wide- spread attention has been attracted to this 

 bulletin throughout the country at large, and most 

 of the great dailies have commented at length upon 

 it editorially. The impression seems to have been 

 made that floriculture is immensely profitable — 

 which will probably surprise many of our florist 

 friends who find it hard to make both extremities 

 connect ! Yet many have undoubtedly found great 

 profit in the business. 



