2 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ July 6, 1895. 
in the moisture, and it will support both to an immeasurably greater 
extent than so much of it does now. 
It is announced that the Board of Agriculture are instituting 
nquiries for ascertaining the best means to adopt with land in dry 
seasons. The best crops, and there are good and bad everywhere, 
tell clearly enough what is needed. More thorough working, more 
manure—plant-food—in the soil, with surface working to conserve 
the scant moisture, and no weeds to devour what the crops so 
urgently require and must have to render them satisfactory. 
Such are some of the clear, plain, practical lessons taught by 
the drought of the present year. Let not their significance be 
disregarded. 
WHAT PAYS BEST? 
(^Concluded from page 516, last vol.) 
Carnations succeed admirably in the 14 feet wide houses, 
either on low roughly extemporised stages or on the borders with 
boards, slates, or tiles under the pots. The common “ Malmaisons” 
do not fetch very high prices in Covent Garden now-a-days, but the 
rage for them has extended to provincial towns, where they sell 
readily enough at from 6 s. to 12 s. per dozen, according to quality and 
the time of year. The pink or more richly coloured forms not 
being so extensively grown, still sell well in London, or somewhat 
better than they do in most provincial towns, most that I have sent 
to Covent Garden averaging 12s. per dozen. Provincial people 
also like good scarlet Carnations of the Winter Cheer type ; the 
saperior whites, notably Mrs. Moore, likewise finding ready sales at 
from Is. 6 d. to 3s. per dozen blooms. For selling in pots, the new 
race known as Marguerites, and which flower the same year as raised 
from seed, are among the best that can be grown, plants in 6 -inch 
pots with six or more blooms expanded on them selling freely late 
in the autumn at Is. each. This season I have raised about 
2000 of these Marguerite Carnations, all being planted out where 
they are to remain till September—early or late in the month, 
according to circumstances. Very few of them will ever see the 
inside of pots, as the bulk will be prepared for lifting by being cut 
round in August and later on transplanted to the border of a house 
in succession to Tomatoes. All being well we shall have some grand 
blooms from these, selling them in mixed colours and in bunches 
thirteen in each, at prices varying from 6 d. to Is. 3d. per bunch. 
All will be cleared out by February, or in time to plant early raised 
Tomatoes. Where the water supply is not good and labour some¬ 
what short, the same plan may well be tried with other winter 
flowering Carnations, Malmaisons excepted. The popular colours 
are red, scarlet, yellow, white, and flesh pink, and the varieties 
should be also those that do not invariably burst their pods. The 
prices for all such vary from 33 . per dozen in times of scarcity to 
Is. 6 d. per dozen when more plentiful—wholesale in each instance. 
Bouvardias are by no means overdone in the provinces, the 
double-flowering forms being worn by gentlemen, and the single 
whites, notably the Jasmine-flowered varieties, in bouquets, wreaths 
and crosses. These succeed well when planted out in a warm 
position and rather light soil, lifting and repotting or transplanting 
to a border, sharing a house, if need be, with Carnations, the latter 
being given the coolest end. Callas, or Arums as generally termed, 
are too often a drug in the market to be very profitable, and the 
only times a good sale for them is certain are at Christmas and 
Easter. Those who succeed in flowering them well at the first festival 
and can contrive to have some for the latter busy time among 
church decorators can afford to sell them cheaply in the interval. 
At no time are the prices so good as formerly. Last Christmas 9s. 
per dozen was considered a fair price, and all we had at Easter 
did not reali«e 63 . per dozen. They need never be grown in pots. 
The old plants being dried off directly the Easter flowers are 
cut, then pulled to pieces, planted out on good ground, lifted 
before the middle of September, and replanted in the houses, will 
pay fairly well for the little trouble expends id on them. 
This brings me to yet another useful class of forcing houses, 
and which market growers cannot very well dispense with. The 
roofing for houses 12 feet wide and 100 feet long can be bought 
cheaply, and bein? duly fixed to well buttressed 9 inch walls, or 
to boarded sides, in either case 30 inches above ground, and glazed 
with the best 21-oz. Belgian glass, a cheap structure is the result. 
In this instance there ought to be a flow and return pipe up each 
side, or the return may be brought back on each side of the central 
path, while it also pays well to have a bottom heat pipe 2 feet or 
so from the sides. Such structures fitted up with wooden latticed 
staging, or better still with light T iron framework covered with 
sheets of galvanised iron, ashes or clean shingle being placed on 
this, are admirably adapted for propagating purposes, and in 
particular for raising thousands of sturdy Tomatoes, Cucumbers, 
and other plants. These warm houses are also the best for Cucum¬ 
bers, and these properly managed are, considering the short time 
they are about, even more remunerative than Tomatoes. Melons, 
again, succeed well in them, but for these to pay well the fruit 
ought to be fairly large, prettily netted, of an attractive colour, and 
perfectly sound when they reach Covent Garden in May and June. 
Later fruit had better be sent to provincial towns, and high prices 
will not be had anywhere for them. 
After the Cucumbers and Melons are cleared (two distinct 
crops of the former being grown in one season) fit up stages for 
pot plants. Maidenhair Fern should certainly be grown extensively, 
the fronds finding a ready sale locally and in large centres at 4d. to 
fid. per dozen, neat plants also going off well at 9s. per dozen 
wholesale, and Is. each retail. Cyclamens ought also to be prepared 
by the hundred for flowering in such stage-fitted houses, the flowers 
of these selling freely at 4d. per dozen, or rather less at times, the 
plants also finding a ready market at remunerative prices. Double 
Chinese Primulas are not in great demand in a cut state, but when 
well flowered in 5-inch pots they sell freely enough at 93 . per 
dozen. When a good stock of A. F. Barron can be propagated, 
this superior variety will find ready sales in a cut state. Zonal 
Pelargoniums, especially Raspails, are largely used by church 
decorators, particularly at Christmas and Whitsuntide, and pay 
well at an average of fid. per dozen. If strong plants are pre¬ 
pared in the open, and wintered clear of each other on stages 
in moderately warm light houses, they will flower grandly as long 
as desired. 
This does not exhaust my list of plants that can be profitably 
grown during the autumn and winter in houses primarily intended 
for fruit culture, no mention having been made of Lily of the 
Valley, Roman and miniature Hyacinths, Freesias, Narcissi, Spiraeas, 
and such like, but I must be content co add that orders for aU the 
latter should be placed at once, or the bulbs or roots may not be 
obtained at similarly low rates if ordered much later on.— 
Market Grower. 
Ventilatino Orchids. 
Odontooeossums are very impatient of direct sunlight; they 
should, therefore, be shaded from sun at all times, from early 
spring until all danger of burning is past in late autumn. Even in 
the winter during occasional short periods of bright sunshine the 
blinds are let down. The plants are never allowed to become dry, 
and are kept very moist during the summer. The house is 
ventilated day and night all the year round. The bottom ventilators, 
or those placed below the staging and about a foot above the floor, 
are left partly open on the coldest of nights, full ventilation from 
this point being given throughout the warm season. The top 
ventilators are opened not later than 6.30 a.m. more or less during 
warm weather, a little air being left on all the night in weather 
like the present. The side ventilators, or those on a level with the 
side staging of the house, are occasionally opened, but only to keep 
down the temperature when it gets beyond the control of the top 
and bottom ventilators. Side ventilation has a tendency to dry the 
house and plants unduly, and should only be employed when 
absolutely necessary ; 70° Fahr. may be considered the maximum 
summer temperature for Odontoglossums, and 60° the average 
during the summer. In winter 50°-55° is a good general tempera¬ 
ture, 5° either way doing no harm according to external tem¬ 
perature. 
Cattleyas require plenty of light, air, and moisture during the 
summer and early autumn, with all the sunshine available in the 
autumn, winter, and early spring. Heavy shading should never be 
used, only sufficient to keep the plants from scorching. Advantage 
ought to be taken of every period of dulness, however short, to 
remove the blinds. Permanent shading of canvas or wash should 
never be used. An average temperature of 5° higher than the 
Odontoglossums is necessary. They require air at all times, but 
not quite so much as the Odontoglossums. I grow Odontoglossum 
citrosmum, O. Harryanum, and O. grande with the Cattleyas. The 
house should be kept moist, likewise the plants, during the growing 
season, with a drier atmosphere and less water at the root after the 
pseudo-bulbs have finished growth. A stagnant atmosphere must 
be avoided at all times. Under the foregoing treatment the 
Odontoglossums and Cattleyas in my care grow and flower freely. 
—W. R. W. 
