. The American florist : a weekly journal for the trade. Floriculture; Florists. 4i6 The American Florist. April 75, Preserving Lumber. The article on "Preserving Lumber" in a recent number of the Florist suf(- gests a few thoughts which may be useful to some in the trade. .\ method of preserving the wood used in the construction of greenhouses, to be generally useful, must be something which anyone can avail himself of, using materials everywhere obtainable at mod- erate cost, and requiring no costly appa- ratus to apply. If used for plant benches it must be innoxious to the plants.
. The American florist : a weekly journal for the trade. Floriculture; Florists. 4i6 The American Florist. April 75, Preserving Lumber. The article on "Preserving Lumber" in a recent number of the Florist suf(- gests a few thoughts which may be useful to some in the trade. .\ method of preserving the wood used in the construction of greenhouses, to be generally useful, must be something which anyone can avail himself of, using materials everywhere obtainable at mod- erate cost, and requiring no costly appa- ratus to apply. If used for plant benches it must be innoxious to the plants. My experience leads me to the conclu- sion that lime and sulphate of iron (green copperas) are best adapted for this use. I have a tank in which I soak all plant stakes, labels, and small boxes used in plant culture, in a saturated solution of lime. I have used the sulphate of iron on my greenhouse benches by sprinkling them when empty with a .solution, two pounds to a gallon of water, applied with a watering-pot. It destroys all fungus growth and preserves the wood. By bor- ing a hole slanting downward near the bottom of a post and filling with copperas —plugging up the hole—the moisture in the wood will dissolve it, and it will im- pregnate the wood upward and down- ward. There is nothing in either iron or sulphuric acid which will injure plant growth if used moderately. I watered a carnation growing in a pot, with quite a strong solution of sulphate of iron, with no injurious effect. No doubt slate and iron make the most durable bench that can be made, but these materials are not to be had every- where, and special mechanics must be emploj-ed to put them together. Wood is everywhere to be obtained, and almost everj' florist is mechanic enough to build his own benches. Sulphate of iron is cheap, and its use as indicated will, I think, solve the problem of preserving lumber in damp places and be cheaper than slate. S. F. Philadelphia Immortelle Design Co., 904 Filbert St.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectfloriculture, bookyea
