460 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



both to be entirely unsatisfactory for a winter roof in this climate. 

 They are cold, dark and not durable. For suiuuier or late spring 

 use, oiled muslin is fairly Siitisfactory. Plants vhich require a 

 heavy shade in summer can be grown to advantage under such a 

 roof. In the summer of 1891 we found -a (iloth-roofed house to 

 be an excellent place for flowering the tuberous begonias. Cloth 

 roofs, with ordinary oil treatment, last less than a year, and papo! 

 is so easily torn and punctured by drifting twigs that we consider 

 it nearly useless for roofs. It will also tear after a short time by 

 a heavy wind from the inside if a door or ventilator chances to 

 be open. The cost of a few annual roofs of this character will 

 pay for a glass roof. Even if the cloth were to last for two or 

 three years, it would soon become very dark from a collecti(m of 

 dirt and the growth of mildew. 



Our first experience with these covers was the use of paper in 

 the fall of 1890. The paper used was a thin white, stiff, archi- 

 tect's drafting paper known in the trade as "Economy." This 

 was laid over the sash-bars and was held down by the caps used 

 for holding butted glass. It was then thoroughly saturated with 

 raw linseed oil. It had been in place but a short time when an 

 ambitious cat attempted to walk over it, and made a hole at aboul 

 every other step. After a few weeks of vexation, ihe paper a\ as 

 removed, and a medium quality of unbleaciuMi muslin loth was 

 substituted, being laid on in the same way. This muslin was 

 oiled twice with raw linseed oil. This was iu December. The 

 cloth lasted until late spring, but became very black and dirty 

 towards the last. In the fall of 1891, another covering of the 

 same muslin was laid, and this received three coats of raw oil. 

 This lasted until the next summer. 



This roof is now covered with glass. 



L. II. BAILEY. 



