ince 1890 
This 15 year old boy with a hoe obviously is visionary, so we must overlook his apparent 
“slow-down.” This, his first greenhouse job, called for working about 11 hours daily for 
$8.00 monthly, and with this he saved his first $100. Not unusual those days, for thrift 
was not yet outmoded during the so-called “gay nineties.” But those 5 little 12x50 ft. flue 
heated greenhouses in the background, each with its little chimney, were of prime interest 
to him. To clean those flues it was his job to drag a small Christmas tree thru each one 
weekly. For ventilation 6 in. boards attached to the ridge were used, battening them down 
for winter, and fastening them open with the coming of spring. Watering was done with a 
can, of course. But our modern greenhouse business was in the making and great prog- 
ress has been made over these 58 years. 
Little could this day-dreaming boy visualize automatic ventilation, thermostatically control- 
led heating, and the automatic sub-watering principles of today. And little did he know 
about the single plant selection principle that !ater so interested him and that is so greatly 
improving greenhouse stock today. These innovations will be found in our above 212 
acres of glass. They are entirely devoted to growing and originating your finest, most 
valuable strains of— 
Hesver Ieee for Horas. Gag gibal 
(The above message written by George J. Ball and the illustration are re- 
printed from the back cover of our 1948 issue of “Flower Seeds for Florists’’.) 
