SEPTEMBER 28, 1899. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



439 



Rustic Arch in the show house of Mr. Chas. Warncke, Detroit. 



try. if possible, to know what the ex- 

 tent ot your establishment is likely to 

 be, so that you can provide for cellar- 

 age, shed room, packing room, etc., for 

 all future needs. The products of your 

 houses will have to be brought to one 

 point for sale or shipment and room 

 here should be provided for all that 

 may be necessary. Lay everything out 

 square; steamfitting, carpentering, 

 glazing, will be all much easier done 

 than where there are different angles 

 and bends and curves to be fitted. A 

 little forethought on these lines will 

 •save much expense and trouble, this I 

 have found to my cost. 



After selection of site the next ques- 

 tion to decide on is style of house or 

 houses. If I were putting up one house 

 and knew positively that I would not 

 require to build more. I would use the 

 three-quarter span with long slope to 

 the south, but when a number of 

 douses are to be built for cut flowers 

 only, this style is so very wasteful of 

 land and scatters the buildings over 

 such a large surface (as that style of 

 house requires an open space between 

 them) that a closer plan of building 

 must be adopted, in which case even 



span houses or short-span-to-the-south 

 must be used, and at present I lean 

 somewhat in favor of even span 

 houses with walk under the gutters. I 

 have four houses now built in that 

 way, all of them with arch under the 

 gutter; two were built last year and I 

 liked them so well that I have built 

 two more this season. The two which 

 were built last year are each 18x600 

 feet, making one room without parti- 

 tions, 600 feet long by 36 feet wide. 

 They are fitted up with four benches 

 each 6 feet wide, running full length 

 of houses. At the lowest point the 

 glass is 6 feet from the bench, giving 

 good head room for tall growing roses, 

 chrysanthemums or other plants. The 

 houses are very light and airy and I 

 think are well adapted to the growing 

 of cut flowers. 



To describe them more particularly 

 I will begin at the foundation. This is 

 made of fourteen rows of cedar posts 

 at proper distance apart, to support 

 the benches and outer walls, and four 

 feet apart in the rows, the tops of the 

 posts three inches above surface of 

 walks. The benches are 18 inches 

 high, 2x4 scantling for framework, 



overlaid with 1%-inch tamarac, all 

 well oiled (including tops of cedar 

 posts) with three coats of crude petro- 

 leum. This I find to be an excellent 

 wood preservative, cheap and easily 

 applied. The outer walls are made of 

 2x6 studding, 6 feet high, set on top 

 of posts. The north wall being cov- 

 ered on outside with two thicknesses 

 of matched sheeting with tar paper 

 between. The south wall with two 

 feet of glass down from plate and 

 balance sheeted same as north. Arch 

 6 feet 8 inches high from top of cedar 

 posts to top of arch. This arch is 

 made of cast iron and carried on 

 standards of 1-inch iron pipe. They 

 are placed every twelve fest and con- 

 nected by truss rods three-eighths- 

 inch round iron, making a very neat 

 yet strong support for center plate. 



Plate 2x10 inches, beveled at both 

 sides to take end of rafters, l%x2%. 

 with a good drip groove on either 

 side; this drip-groove is an important 

 thing, should be worked out smoothly 

 and be continuous from end to end of 

 rafter. Cap got out of inch stuff with 

 groove of proper width and depth to fit 

 rabbet on rafter. Ridge I%x6 inches. 

 grooved on either side to receive glass; 

 ridge lap 1x3. Purlins 1%x2V&, sup- 

 ported with 1-inch iron pipe. Ventila- 

 tors 2 feet 11 inches square, every 

 fourth row of glass; that is, two rows 

 of glass and a ventilator alternately. 

 I like this better than continuous ven- 

 tilation, as it is lighter on the venti- 

 lating machine and gives more opening 

 when ventilators are raised. Pitch of 

 roof one-fourth inch to the foot. 



All dressed material should be on 

 the ground long enough before build- 

 ing operations begin to receive three 

 good coats of lead and oil. The paint- 

 ing is much easier and more quickly 

 done before building is erected, and 

 by having everything cut to proper 

 lengths and shape before painting, the 

 joints get their share, which would be 

 impossible if painted after the build- 

 ing is up. 



Glazing should be done by butting 

 the glass. I use 16x16 as being a handy 

 size, and find 21 oz. English glass to be 

 the best, with 1% No. 8 round-head 

 screws to fasten the caps. 



As there has been some controversy 

 of late as to the merits or demerits of 

 butted glass, I will describe my meth- 

 od of laying it. When nailing on the 

 rafters see that they are placed per- 

 fectly square with the plate. This is 

 important, otherwise your glass will 

 not run true up the roof. I have used 

 both Belgian and English glass and 

 find the latter to be cut much nearer 

 true and square than the Belgian, con- 

 sequently %-inch play is sufficient be- 

 tween the rafters for English glass, 

 but if Belgian is used 3-16-inch is not 

 any too much. Also see that glass line 

 is even with plate and glass groove in 

 ridge, or if anything a trifle high 

 rather than low. Space the rafters at 

 purlin and fasten firmly; this will 

 bring them parallel and prevent them 

 spreading at that point. 



Now with rafters well and truly 



