In the _Country Gentleman_ an account is given of a violet farm on
the north shore of Illinois, where two women are supplying local
florists.. One of them says: "We started our farm last spring in the
face of most discouraging prophecies from our friends and the
keenest competition of violet growers of New York. But we believed
we could be successful. We had studied the best scientific methods
of growing the plants, had imported the best soil obtainable, and
built a greenhouse fully adapted to our needs, so we just went ahead
and we found it to be a paying proposition.
"Our first experiment was in using cuttings from the violet farm of
a lady at Lansing, Michigan, who has been a most successful grower.
These did not thrive, and we next imported 3000 cuttings from the
Tarrytown neighborhood, where violet culture has been most
successful.
"The first rule is to keep the temperature of the greenhouse between
forty-five and fifty degrees. Violets are spring flowers, and wither
and droop if the temperature is not at the right degree. Most people
think the double violets have no fragrance because most of those
that we get lose their fragrance in transit.
"We supply 2000 flowers a week, and as they reach our patrons within
two or three hours at the most from the time of cutting, they retain
their fragrance. They are also larger and of a deeper color than the
New York flowers. Next year we hope to go in on a much larger scale.
"While the work is not hard, it requires infinite care and vigilance
when the little plants are growing. As a career for a woman, violet
growing offers greater inducements than anything I can think of."
Then, surely, others can succeed in other flowers at other places.
While there is little choice between the standard styles of
greenhouses for violets, there should be abundant provision for
supplying fresh air, either from the sides or top, whichever is
chosen. The system of ventilation should admit of operation either
from the inside or the outside of the house, as fumigation with
hydrocyanic acid gas is sometimes necessary, in the fumes of which
it is impossible to enter, unless with a gas mask.
The arrangement of the house should secure the greatest possible
supply of sunshine in December and January, and the least possible
during the growing season, when, as Miss Howard points out, it is
necessary to secure as low a temperature as possible, so as to
obtain good, vigorous, healthy-growing plants. The best site is a
level piece of ground, or one sloping gently to the south.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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