February 20, 1002. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



423 



"Retirin"! No, said Sandy, with a sort o" 



sickly grin, 

 "They don't call me an 'easy mark,' but he 



ken rope me in! 

 "For though the stuff he sells me will most 



usu'l swell my cash, 

 "My wife will shake her head an' say, 'Now, 



Sandy, you're too brash." 



"How he ken get seeh seedlin's is a puzzle 



sure to me! 

 "He's sent out 'Triumph,' 'Merikee' an' 



Hartje's "Jubilee." 

 "An' 'Flora Hill." named fer a maid dear to 



her father's heart, 

 "An" "Gaiety." but why name more? They're 



sold in every mart." 



"Not fur from Hill is Missus Grave, with sech 

 a model place, 



"An eastern chap who visits her goes 'way 

 with envous face. 



"Her 'Dorothy' shows blossoms with a free- 

 dom jes' as rank 



"As April vi'lets in the &rass upon a southern 

 bank." 



"Sez Sandy, 'There air others who have seed- 

 lin's up in 'G.' 



"Why. Nelson, he has introjuced one good 

 enuff fer me. 



There's 'Nuby,' 'Peru,' 'Hoosier Maid* an' 

 Stuart's 'Avondale.' 



""Which he declares if you but grow your trade 

 ken never fail." 



"To still a doubt 'bout our supply an' any fear 



relieve. 

 "We hain't a florist but has got a seedlin' up 



his sleeve. 

 "An" we will do our very best, oh, you may 



bet your buttins, 

 "To sell the stock to all the world of needed 



rooted cuttins.' " 



These reasons air not majiy an' there's dozens 



more beside 

 Why all us Hoosier folks do seem puffed up 



with sech a pride. 

 An' ef there is a feller won't admit now our 



renown 

 We'll ask him very kindly "to go 'way back 



an' set down." 



PITTSBURG. 



Club Meeting. 



The regular inontlily meeting of the 

 Pittshurg and Allegheny Florists' and 

 Gardeners' Club was held in the Cut 

 Flower Company's rooms, 504 Liberty 

 street, on Thursday evening, 13th inst., 

 a large attendance being present. It was 

 election of officers night. AH of the 

 members nominated for office at the 

 previous meeting were unanimously 

 elected. Seven new members were elect- 

 ed, and six new names proposed for 

 membership. 



The committee appointed at the last 

 meeting to look for a new meeting 

 place, the present quarters being too 

 small, reported on several places it 

 had examined, and it was continued and 

 given power to make the selection. Sev- 

 eral members signified their intention of 

 attending the Carnation Convention at 

 Indianapolis next week. 



The recent action of some members 

 of the Board of Park Commissioners 

 in the city of Buffalo in proposing to 

 erect a bronze monument in the park 

 to the memory of William McMillan, 

 their late superintendent, was brought 

 up and discussed. It was most gratify- 

 ing news. No park man in America 

 was ever more esteemed than William 

 McMillan, his name was synonymous 

 for unswerving honesty, sterling man- 

 hood and love for and devotion and ap- 

 plication to his work. And the dis- 

 missal a few years ago of that noble, 

 unyielding soul, is an everlasting blot 

 on the name of Buffalo. And it was 

 with heartfelt pleasure that the fol- 

 lowing words, spoken by retiring Park 

 Commissioner Langdon, at the meeting 

 of the board on the"28th ult., were read: 

 "I feel as though I ought not to retire 

 without an expression of praise and 

 gratitude for the splendid work done 

 by our late superintendent, William 



McMillan, in upbuilding the Buffalo 

 park system. * * * To that man 

 more than to any one individual Buffalo 

 owes her present park system. The one 

 act of my career as park commissioner 

 that I bitterly regret is the vote that 

 I cast to dismiss that competent official. 

 * * * I believe that the insult that 

 we then offered him materially hastened 

 his death." The club then unanimously 

 and most heartily voted to send its 

 thanks to to Mr. Langdon and his co- 

 workers for his manly expressions and 

 their resolve to erect a monument in 

 the park to America's greatest park 

 superintendent. 



The subject for discussion was 

 "Greenhouse Building." Members 



Burki, Blind, Elliott, Murdock, Reine- 

 man, Herron, Nelson and several others 

 gave expression to their views. Mr. 

 Fred Burki, who lias recently built 

 some very large rose houses, detailed 

 his construction. He likes iron frame 

 houses better than wooden ones, though 

 their original cost is a third more, and 

 he likes wide, high houses better than 

 low. narrow ones; they are lighter, 

 easier to heat and keep warm and plants 

 grow better in them. He gets better 

 roses in winter from a three-quarter 

 span house than from a full span one, 

 but the latter is better for summer, or 

 all-the-year round work. 



He uses selected, double strength 

 B. Pittsburg glass, 16x24, lapping it 

 3-lG of an inch, bedding it in home- 

 made putty, tacking it in place with 

 Sieberfs points and running thick white 

 lead along the edges. His experience 

 with butted glass has not been favor- 

 able. He has tile-lined and plank-lined 

 benches; the tile-lined ones dry out 

 much quicker than the wooden ones and 

 the plants grow better on them and 

 yield more roses, and he makes more 

 money from them than from the other, 

 hence the tile is the better and most 

 profitable one. 



Several of the greenhouse builders of 

 the country sent in writing their views 

 of what is best in this line, what to 

 observe, to do and what not to do. Mr. 

 Burnham, of the firm of Lord & Burn- 

 ham, being sick, referred the club to his 

 views as expressed in a very compre- 

 hensive illustrated article in Vol. II. of 

 Bailey's Encyclopedia of Horticulture. 

 It is worth reading. 



Mr. J. D. Carmody. of Evansville, 

 Ind., urged that no " man should ever 

 build a greenhouse on another man's 

 land. And he sent a picture of the race 

 horse he has placed at the disposal of 

 any member who will visit him at Car- 

 nation Convention time. 



ilr. DeForest, of Hitchings Company, 

 advised building houses giving as much 

 light as possible. Use every means to 

 get rid of drip. Use a continuous iron 

 gutter and never a galvanized iron one. 

 The pitch of roof should be ~i inches 

 to the foot, never less than 6 inches. 

 Lap the glass. Bed in best putty, and 

 with small brush run thick white lead 

 along the sash-bar edges of the glass. 

 Have good double strength French or 

 American glass, and carefully select the 

 best panes for the roof, and any that 

 show a defect put into the partitions 

 and ends. Commercial houses now run 30 

 to 50 feet wide, and often 300 to 400 

 feet long. In this case the benches are 

 all on the same level, a little narrower 

 than formerly, with more frequent path- 

 ways between and always a pathway 

 next the front and back of the house. 



Never use kiln dried cypress, but always 

 air dried wood. In hot water heating 

 2-ineh pipe is taking precedence over 

 all other sizes, but there should be a 

 valve on every floor and return run of 

 pipe. And have duplicate boilers so 

 valved that they can be run together or 

 separately, and if need be, that one can 

 be disconnected and removed without in- 

 terfering with the proper working of 

 the other. In ventilating use a con- 

 tinuous sash for each string of gearing 

 and not several sashes to the same rod. 

 While cast iron may be all right in 

 contact with the ground and last for 

 years, wrought iron should never touch 

 the earth, else it will rust out in a few 

 years; it should be set into a concrete 

 base well above the soil ; in fact so 

 should all iron. Angle iro'n purlins 

 1^x2 inches are better and cheaper than 

 pipe. The regular sashbars are ljx2i to 

 3 inches, depending upon the span. 



The Lockland Lumber Company sent 

 models of the parts and construction of 

 their wooden houses. These were very 

 interesting and freely handled and dis- 

 cussed in detail by the members. Mr. 

 James Murdoch has houses, built ten 

 years ago, of this same material and 

 construction, and he said they appear to 

 be as good to-day as when he first built 

 them. But he keeps them well painted 

 and the gutters tarred. They strongly 

 advise clear, all-heart, air dried cypress, 

 and urge against any white sapwood 

 or kiln dried wood. For wooden houses 

 they recommend square red cedar posts 

 resting on a stone in the bottom of a 

 deep post hole. Preference is given to 

 double strength A glass, 16x24. Have 

 considerable faith in butted glass. In- 

 stead of 20-ft. houses, 30, 36 and 40-ft. 

 are now called for, and their opinion is 

 in favor of full span rather than triple 

 short-roof greenhouses. 



Charlie Weathered wrote as follows: 

 ''Tlie tendency now is, to build very 

 wide houses — in some cases 52 feet. My 

 opinion is, however, that they have now 

 reached the limit, as any further in- 

 crease would necessitate increasing the 

 weight of the iron to carry the load, 

 thus increasing the shade so as to be 

 unbeneficial. Iron frame is far prefer- 

 able to any other, being far lighter, 

 much more durable and so little more 

 expensive as to warrant their universal 

 use. In all cases, use wrought iron fit- 

 tings wherever possible for the reason 

 that cast iron is so liable to break, fre- . 

 quently doing so in tightening up a 

 bolt, and in many cases, in places un- 

 perceivable, and thus becomes very dan- 

 gerous, the cast iron fittings also fre- 

 quently breaking, through the settling 

 of the house. With wrought iron fit- 

 tings, this is impossible. 



Don't spare expense in foundations. 

 Get a solid foundation, whether of brick, 

 stone or cement. It is false economy 

 to put a good house on a bad foundation. 

 Tliis refers as much to supports for col- 

 umns and benches as to support of main 

 framework. Use cypress, but be sure 

 it is good. In all cases, get air dried ; 

 kiln drying rots the lumber and is 

 worse than useless. I firmly l>elieve 

 where houses have not brick foundations 

 and one of iron framework in using the 

 rafter, for the post, or rather in making 

 a continuous rafter from foundation 

 base to ridge. The rafter being set in 

 cement cannot corrode, and being in one 

 piece cannot break as it is very liable to 

 where a cast iron post is used (they 

 usually breaking at the joint) and the 



