Washington telegraph., 1910-03-11
EzELSA~t
MONEY IN v|OLETS
Two New York Girls Make Sue
cess on Very Small Capital.
Operate Farm That Brings Them
$4,000 YearIy-First Invest in Hot
bed Sashes and Afterwards
Build Greenhouse.

year netted us more than $4,000" de-
clafed young woman who raises Yio-
lets for the New York market. MY
sister and | began the business about
four years ago with capital of less
than $50 and about as little expert
enee as girls who have lived in the
! country all their lives could have
about anything growing in the ground.
Our first investment was in 70 un-
glazed hotbed sashes three b. six feet
at 70 cents a sash. BY glazing the
whole lot ourselves the cost came to
SIS.
! 1T was in the autumn that we be-
| gan. While glazing was going on we
devoted our evenings to studying up
| varieties. We soon learned that we
must choose between the Marie Louise
and the Lady Hume Campbell as they
were quoted as the only double variety
/ suited to commercial growing.
"As the Marie Louise violets were
the most popular in the New York
market and it was there that we in
tended to market our flowers, of
course we decided on them. Early in
March we invested $40 in cuttings of
that variety and began work in earn
est
Following the advice of a success
full violet grower we potted these cut
tings in two-inch pots in a mixture of
one part well-rotted manure to three
parts garden soil. Besides mixing
thoroughly we sifted this soil to make
sure that there were no humps. We
| then set the pots in frame in THE
garden and covered them with four OF
! the sashes. There were about 1,00s
pots in all, containing what we have
since learned were very poor cuttings
indeed.
while waiting for the cuttings to
root we had our frame built into
which they were to be set permanent
| ly. This frame was only rough box
six feet wide by 36 feet long, Il
inches deep in the back and half as
much in front. The lumber cost US
three dollars, and we paid a man a
-dursar TOT the mari Auay S work OF 'pru1rt''
ing 1t.
"The frame was placed on fertile
spot in the garden. Over the surface
of the soil we spread well-rotted
stable manure to the depth of three or
four inches
SIT required all my sisters ane my
spare time for about month to work
this in sud get the soil to our satisfac
ton. BY that time lit was the middle
of April and our friendly violet grow
er made a trip of five miles to de-
termine if our cuttings were ready
for planting.
Acting on his advice we selected
the largest for planting first, leaving
the small ones for the last. We
knocked them carefully out of the pots
and set them in the frame eight
inches apart in siX-inch rows. This
soon brought us to the end of our
space with almost half our plants,
most of them quite small, still in the
pots.
There was nothing for it but to
build another frame and get more
glass. AS our cash was running low
my sister and | decided to dispense
with the carpenters services and do
the building ourselves. This We found
easy enough and by the eGd ,of the
month we had the satisfaction iof set
ting out the last of cur young plants
These being very small we set them
only six inches apart sin ia e'inch rows.
Our next step was TO make suit
able shade against the time when the
plants would need protection from the
direct rays of the sun Hnis we con-
structed ourselves by fastening laths
to wire clotheSlines with double point
ed tacks. We selected this means of
protection because the screen could be
easily rolled up when not in use.
Our plants began to bloom about
the middle of Septene ber, and though
we kept the blossoms closely picked
we did not attempt to sell them until
the first week in October
I'VE picked the flowers early in this
morning and after putting them up in
,bunches of SO each carried them at
crop we received only 40 cents a hun
dred and in November 55 cents.
During October we built our first
greenhouse. 1t was 60x20 feet and by
helping with the work in every pos
sible way we managed to reduce the
cost from $50, the first estimate given
by the carpenter, to s65.
HThe plants were lifted from the
frame and set in beds in this green
house early in November and so well
did we do the work that none of them
stopped blooming. At Christmas we
picked nearly 1000 blossoms, which
we sold at 80 cents a hundred. AS
our greehouse had been built on bor-