182 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[May, 
we have come to the conclusion that growing 
them, in the portable condition, in pots or tubs, 
is the best, every thing considered. No doubt 
it is successfully done bolh ways; but one ad- 
vantage of having thetu in pots is, that if any 
change is necessary in the greenhouse, the 
plants, if grown in pots, are available for sale, 
which they would not be if permanently planted 
out. The rose-house we erected last year con- 
tains about 5,000 plants, grown in 10 and 12- 
inch pots, occupying about a square foot of 
space for each plant. No plants could possibly 
be in better health and vigor; and the amount 
of rose-buds, gathered from October to May, 30 
weeks, averaged about 2,000 buds per week. 
At New York rates, which are very low — say 
$6 per 100— this would give about $3,600 for 
the crop. The varieties grown I will name in 
the order of their value here : Safrano (orange 
yellow), Isabella Sprunt (canary yellow), Bon 
Silent (carmine purple), and La Paclole (yellow- 
ish white). These are all tea-roses, and the 
varieties most valued for forcing ; Bon Silene is 
the favorite, and is largely grown about Boston. 
One florist there sent last New Year's Day to 
the bouquet-makers of New York 1,200, for 
Which he received $300, or $23 per 100. This 
variety, from its delicious odor and rare and 
bright shade of color, is generally of twice the 
value of any other ; but against this advantage 
is the fact, that it is less prolific of bloom, 
scarcely giving half the number of flowers in a 
given space as any of the others named. 
"N. G." inquires also our method of summer 
preparation for forcing. We secure good 
healthy young plants that have been propagated 
in March or April ; these, when first taken from 
the cutting-bench, are placed in 2 or 3-inch 
pots; if rooted in March, they will have filled 
the small pots with roots by the middle of 
April; if in April, by middle of May. In either 
case they should be shifted into larger pots as 
soon as the ball of soil has been filled with 
white roots ; if left too long unshifted, the roots 
become brown in color, and of a hard, woody 
nature ; if in this condition they become checked 
in growth, they never afterward make so fine 
plants. Of course, until the middle of May, 
these shiftings of the young plants must be 
done under glass, but after that time they should 
be placed in beds of convenient width — say 4 
or 5 feet, in some free and airy situation. When 
first shifted from a smaller to a larger pot, the 
plants should be placed close' together, the rims 
of the pots touching; but as they begin to 
PLAN OF ROSE-HOUSE. 
grow freely, the pots should be drawn apart, so 
that the rims stand an inch or so clear of each 
other. This is very important, in order to ad- 
mit free circulation of air around the sides of 
the pots, and develop strong and healthy roots. 
Until the middle of June we stand the pots on 
the SHrface of the ground ; but about that time 
it is necessary to plunge the pots to the rim in 
sand, coal-ashes, waste tan-bark, or some such 
dry and light material. If this is not done, 
they can hardly be kept damp enough ; and 
the intense heat of the sun beating down on 
the sides of the pots, dries up the young root- 
lets. It is necessary that the beds wherein the 
roses are plunged should be so 
arranged that no water will -^S 
lodge at the roots, as that -sjB 
would be quickly fatal. Last 
fall we found it necessary, after 
a heavy rain-storm, to lift the 
pots out of the sand in which 
they had been plunged, to al- 
low them to dry. Forty-eight 
hours of heavy rain would 
have killed the young roots. 
It is also essential to watch that 
the roots do not get through 
the bottom of the pot ; to pre- 
vent this, they should be turned 
around at least every ten days, 
to break off any roots that 
may have run through. It will 
be understood that continued 
shiftings into larger pots are 
necessary during intervals of 
four or five weeks during the 
summer, until September, by which time, if 
well grown, they will be of sufficient size to re- 
quire pots of 10 or 12 inches in diameter. We 
never shift them after middle of September, as 
the roots they have then made are sufficient to 
carry thein through the winter and spring, 
stimulated, however, by water drained from the 
manure heap, which we use twice a week, from 
January on to May, diluted to the color of 
strong tea. The expenses attendant on the 
cultivation, and the interest on the investment 
of this rose-house the past season, were about 
as follows: 
First cost of stock, if it had to be bought, 5,000 
roses, at 10 cts . $500 
Interest on $6,000, at 13 per cent 720 
Labor of one man for the year 500 
80 tons coal, at $6.00 480 
$2,200 
Receipts for the year 3,600 
Profit $1,400 
The second year, of course, the expense of 
buying stock would not come in, as the plants 
would be in better order the second and even 
the third year than the first ; besides, if young 
plants are wanted for sale, they might be prop- 
agated in any quantity from 
the flowering plants. Another 
question asked by " N. G." 
I had nearly forgotten : he 
wishes to know if one or 
more greenhouses of this con- 
struction may be joined to- 
gether in front of each other. 
This is exactly what we did 
last year. We had previously 
built one house 300 feet in 
length by 20 feet in width, 
and conceived the idea of 
using the front wall of this 
for the back wall of the other, 
and so built with the best 
possible results. The house 
placed in front must of necessity be from l'| 2 
to 2 feet lower than the one behind. 
tatoes together in the same rows, planting the 
potatoes first, and then planting the peas as we 
would if they were to occupy the land alone, 
except that they are not planted quite so thick. 
This system is much in vogue among market- 
gardeners, and answers a very good purpose. 
The pea-vines are not brushed, but fall into the 
HOLLER AND MARKER. 
EoilMtrBpes 
Peas and Potatoes. — Being short of ground 
for our gardening operations, we have this year 
adopted the plan of planting our peas and pa- 
rows between the potatoes. It may be adopted 
with early or late potatoes equally well, 
- i M«M 1 m 
Combined Roller and Marker. 
Mr. Chas. T. Starr, Avondale, Pa., sends us a 
drawing of a combined roller and marker, 
which he has invented, and finds it in the truck- 
garden, and for root-crops, etc., superior to 
any thing he has tried. He thus describes it: 
"It is in the shape of a wooden hand-roller, 
12 inches in diameter, and 3 feet 6 inches in 
length ; the frame is made of 2 x 2-inch white 
oak, with a tongue 6 feet in length. On the 
back part of the frame is hinged a piece of stuff 
l'|ax3'|j inches, to which markers, 2 inches 
wide, are attached, by two bolts in a slot, so 
they may be raised or lowered as required; 
this piece, 'with the markers attached, is fast- 
ened down by one hook, attached to the frame, 
which may be raised and hooked up, when the 
beds are planted and the whole is wished to be 
rolled to finish. The advantages, I think, are 
obvious : 1st, it crushes all small clods before 
marking, and levels the ground ; 2d, the rows 
are all of a uniform width, and it will not vary 
from side to side in the least ; 3d, the rows can 
be made straighter with this than any other 
marker; and 4th, it is two machines combined 
in one." 
— — I II 1 m 
Sweet Corn and Celery on the same 
Ground. 
BT PETER HENDERSON. 
About a dozen years ago I came into posses- 
sion, about the 1st of May, of a four-acre plot 
that had lain for many years in sod. It was 
then too late to be able to break it up so as to 
plant with any of the finer kinds of vegetables ; 
so I decided to plant it with sweet corn. Ac- 
cordingly, I had the sod plowed over flat in 
such a manner as would best rot it. I was care- 
ful to have the furrows straight, and at every 
5 feet, where they lapped together, I dropped 
sweet corn at 4 or 5 inches apart, so that when 
it started to grow it stood in regular lines 5 feet 
distant. The corn was planted about 20th of 
May, and hoed around the line as it grew, the 
