Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women - Wise Acres Yearbook (Ambler, PA)

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managerial qualities you possess. Systematize your place till your work is clone in the quickest and most efficient manner possible; and don’t overlook your bookkeeping. That is a matter that requires a remarkably large part of your time at the best, but a well systematized office leaves you much more time for the ever-pressing work in the greenhouses. And work it really is. You can’t shirk, and you can’t let slack work pass. The nrr'fits will tell the tale every time. Your enthusiastic visitors are sure to envy you your “fascinating work under such charming conditions,” but don’t let that stimulate your imagination too much now! There is a deal of routine work that must be attended to and there is a deal of slow, tedious work that is as important as any other part. And for you, Madam Manager, there is still a bigger task. You must know the work of your greenhouses so well that you can step in and fill any place that needs you. To be ready in such a case means that you must constantly be in touch with your employees, and know how the work is progressing. If you can leave your own job long enough to set some bungling worker right and return to your own task without having “lost your place,” you will have proved your efficiency. It is the way you carry this ever-present responsibility that marks you as a good or a poor manager. But don’t make yourself a slave to your business. Learn to relax now and then, and when you find yourself getting too deeply engrossed in our work take a day off. Don't lose your outside interests, and don’t, above all things, lose your sense of humor. A good laugh in the middle of a hectically busy day will give life a simpler ispect and will freshen your whole brain for the next task. After all you will find it very simple. You need only to be, to the best of your ability, a clear thinker, an efficient manager, a steady worker, and a whole-souled player to make it pay. CONSERVATION OF COAL IN GREENHOUSES By Edna M. Gunnell Just four simple rules to be followed: j. Low temperatures in the houses to the great improvement ip color or scent and health of plants. 2. Low fires on mild days and nights irrespective of the month these happen to occur. This is always a safe saver. 3. Keeping low fires in the morning even after cold nights when anticipating sunny days. 4. Early closing of the ventilators to retain the sun’s heat when anticipating cold nights. Briefly then, in stoking, use the natural heat of the sun, and thy intelligence. Re-print from Wise-Acres, March, 1918.

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THE COMMERCIAL GREENHOUSE By Helen N. Kille, ’23 and E. F. F. The work in an educational greenhouse is taken day by day; in a private greenhouse it is month by month; but in a commercial greenhouse it is a matter of year by year, or, more truly, life by life. In a school greenhouse the work is experimental for each student . It is a new field for her and .she is intent on learning as much as possible in her given time. All the old theories that have been tried many times before she must try for herself, and prove again. Every new theory that presents itself is a new adventure for her. She longs to try it out and reduce it to practical use, or to discard it as impractical. If she goes from school into a private greenhouse her outlook on the subject is only slightly changed. Here again the making of money is not the prime object. The school-inspired experiments can still be carried on—perhaps under more advantageous conditions. But go into the commercial world and you will find a very different situation. There the success of a crop means profit and bigger business, while a failure means another start and the same long-drawn-out task over again. It is a real job there, and requires the very best you have to give; from head, hands, and heart. You have your planning to handle first. In the florist’s business this must be done a long way ahead, for a greenhouse crop can’t be brought in at the last minute. It takes a full season to carry a chrysanthemum cutting to maturity and blooming, and it takes three years to get a blossoming plant from a genista cutting. Moreover, you must get your crops in on time. You don’t want your Easter lilies con ing into bloom in May, or your chrysanthemums just showing color in October. That means: know your plants, and calculate well before you do your planting. In business we naturally raise only money-making plants, and we strive for the best results from-the smallest outlay of money. We have to. When you sit down to do your planning decide carefully what you want, and then stick to it. You can waste more time and money and valuable brain energy in changing your mind than you can in any other way. Incidentally, you are wasting the time of someone else, and that never pays. Don’t forget that there is more than planning and growing to be :lone. The selling end is an important thing. You may be able to raise your crops successfully, but if you can’t sell them you might as well shut up the greenhouses and go to work in the nearest store. Crops must be marketed quickly and advantageously. That demands judgment and ingenuity in advertising, special sales, etc. You will be surprised how a clever advertising campaign will encourage a slack business. It is a pretty generally conceded fact that some people are born managers, and some are not. If you are going to succeed in the florist’s business you will have to develop to their fullest extent any

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THE DELICIOUS MONSTER By George B. Kaiser No. it is not an animal, but the fruit of Monstera Deliciosa, a plant of the Arum family, that climbs the trunks of palms in tropical America and, with its aerial roots often adds to the impenetrability of the jungle. “Most delicious,” said a noted botanist in commenting upon the flavor of this delectable morsel. “It combines the lusciousness of ripe bananas, pineapples, and the juiciest of strawberries.” And his eyes turned heavenward, no doubt recalling how this ambrosial fruit had tasted to him. Is it a wonder that our mouths thereafter watered and that, over a year ago. when a gentleman at Horticultural Hall, in Fairmount Park, promised us a ripened “monster” our epicurean spirit rose high in expectation? Recently at a meeting of the Germantown Horticultural Society a fruit of Monstera was exhibited reposing upon one of its great perforated leaves. It had been brought to luscious maturity by the care of I. Newton Kulp, gardener to the Misses Mason, of School Lane, after several years of fruitless endeavor to accomplish this feat of greenhouse culture. It looked like a fat, rough, green cucumber about ten inches in length, except at the end, where the hexagonal green plates had fallen away, exposing the pale yellowish soft interior, which exhaled a tempting fragrance of ripe pineapple. It was generously presented to the School of Horticulture by Mr. Kulp. who soon departed, with a sly smile warning the grateful Enthusiast that it would be in his charge from that instant. This was no sinecure. Children greedily• eyed the prospective treat, the while sniffing the odorous emanations from it. Grownups, too, were not without covetous glances, and that gentleman from Horticultural Hall, himself, whose fruit had probably not ripened, had the unwarranted temerity to actually treat one of his friends to a portion of the araceous treasure! Toward the end of the evening a member of the Society even dared to make off with the “monster” under guise of protecting it for the Enthusiast. That settled it! The tasty fruit was hastily wrapped in tissue paper by its new guardian and by him borne away with the great leaf, a yard long, trailing after, to the amusement of the audience and later to the edification ol trolley riders. Next morning the adventures of Monstera were continued on the way to Ambler. When the convoy at last reached the School safely all were soon conquered and convinced that no praise could be too high in describing the gastronomic delights experienced in partak'ng of this unusual fare, 'file Enthusiast, who served the fruit, found it altogether proper to taste a little himself each time he served a participant in the feast, and each time he only the better understood that celestial trend in the eyes of the learned Professor who had at first enlightened him concerning the charms of the delicious Monstera.