470 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



bloom the next winter. For summer blooming the planting is done in 

 March or April, in order that the plants may be well started and have 

 made good growth when the time for cutting has come. 



Given the houses, well planted in good season, soil and stock, the 

 duties of the grower are ready to be taken up. With the exception of 

 the twelve hours when the nightman is in charge, each grower is entirely 

 responsible for the soil-conditions, water, temperature, and continued good 

 health of the plants, and for the production of blooms of proper quantity 

 and quality. This is for a given amount of glass, the usual method giving 

 each man about six thousand square feet ; in some places, however, one 

 finds a much closer division of labour — a man for weeding, for tying up, 

 for hose work, for cutting the Eoses : in short, a man for each separate 

 piece of work ; a system through whose long division responsibility has 

 been entirely lost, as well as that interest and competition which arise 

 when each man has his own house or houses, backed by the ambition 

 to make his 1 Liberty,' 'Meteor,' ' Brides,' or what maybe, the best on the 

 place. 



Each variety has its own temperature, the day being about ten 

 degrees higher than the night. The changes are made gradually at both 

 times. In order to keep the temperatures within their ranges, the night 

 fireman makes trips through the range every two hours, changing his 

 pipes and pushing his fires or shutting them down as is required. The 

 day fireman pulls the fires, and wheels the ashes made in the preceding 

 twenty-four hours. He keeps his fires in accordance with directions from 

 men in the houses. 



It may be interesting to give a brief outline of the daily routine in 

 the greenhouses. The day begins at seven in the morning, unless a 

 shift has come on at some unforeseen hour to make a shipment. The first 

 thought is the temperature, that the houses have been properly kept 

 during the night, which is ascertained by means of registering thermo- 

 meters. The temperatures must be rising, so that the reduction caused 

 by watering will not chill the plants. Following' this the cutting is 

 carefully done, counted, and registered on a sheet of paper ruled for that 

 purpose, which is returned at the end of the month, that a record of the 

 standing of each house may be made at the end of the year, and the 

 amount of loss estimated. The Roses are carried to the grading-room 

 and left in pots of water. The next work is the watering, if needed, or 

 the syringing, if the day be propitious, for the red spider loves his deeds 

 of darkness and fears only cold water. The remainder of the morning, if 

 bright, is spent in spraying with some one of the fungicides, otherwise in 

 tying up the bushes, cleaning the soil and working it, picking leaves, or 

 some similar work. If necessary a second cutting is made before noon. 

 Prom twelve until one is the dinner hour, after which work begins again 

 with a repetition of the morning's work, save that of watering, syring- 

 ing, or spraying. At five or a quarter past all hands are called to 

 the packing-room to make the shipment which will reach the market 

 the next morning. Before this may be described we will have to see 

 what has become of the Hoses which have been left in the grading-room 

 at di lie rent times during the day. One or two women, as may be needed 

 to handle the Roses, now take them in charge, carefully grading each bud : 



