JiXUiRY 21. 1904. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



407 



Vegetable Houses of W. H. Weinschenk, New Castle, Pa., one 60x200, the other 80x200. 



Vegetable Forcing. 



THE MARKETS. 



Chicago, Jan. 20.— Radishes, 20 to 

 45 cents ptr dozen bunches. Cucumbers, 

 50 cents to $1.10 dozen. Lettuce, head, 

 $1 to $3.2.'5 barrel. 



New York, Jan. 18. — Cucumbers, 20 

 cents to $1 dozen. Lettuce, 25 to 75 

 cents dozen. Eadishes, .$1.50 to $3 per 

 100 bunches. Rhubarb, 75 to So cents 

 dozen. JIu.shrooms, 10 to 50 cents pound. 

 Tomatoes, 10 to 20 cents pound. 



BIG VEGETABLE HOUSES. 



The illustrations of the W. H. Wein- 

 schenk gretnhouses, at Xew Castle, ta., 

 in this issue show what may well be said 

 to be the most remarkable vegetable 

 forcing houses in this country. The 

 nearer house, of which only a part is 

 seen in the photograph, is 60x200, the 

 further house 80.\-200. As is seen, the 

 houses stand on a side hill, the grade 

 being steepest under the narrower house 

 and four inchts to the foot under the 

 house which is eighty feet wide. A 

 cross section of this house is also shown, 

 illustrating the style of construction. 

 Under the long slope there is a line of 

 purlins every six feet, the roof being 

 seven feet six inches from the ground 

 at the ridge and four feet at the south 

 gutter. The ridge is twenty-seven feet 

 and eight inches above the south (lower) 

 gutter, but ilr. Weinschenk says he 

 finds no trouble in ventilating or in 

 heating. There are twenty-three four- 

 foot ventilator sash, each the width of 

 four lights of 20-inch glass, along the 

 south side of the ridge, and in the side 

 wall there is a continuous line of 20x30 

 ventilators. 



Both houses have solid beds, made of 

 swamp muck twelve inches deep, liber- 

 ally enriched with cow manure. In the 

 nearer house there are four beds, each 

 twelve feet wide, each bed elevated four 

 feet above the one south of it by a retain- 

 ing wall. Xo walks are provided, a line 

 of 6-inch boards being laid along the 

 center of each bed before planting, for 

 convenience in setting plants and water- 



ing w'hile the crop is being started. The 

 wider house is on the same plan as the 

 other except that there are no retaining 

 walls, there being a gradual rise of four 

 inches to the foot. 



The narrower house is heated by a 

 No. S sectional steam boiler, by the over- 

 head system, having one 3-inch main and 

 eight IVi-inch flows near the glass, the 

 same returning about fifteen inches from 

 the ground. The bottom bed has about 

 forty per cent of this piping, there be- 

 ing proportionately less as the house 

 rises, it being obvious that on account 

 of the sharp incline the heat rises quick- 

 ly to the top. Nevertheless, an even 

 temperature is maintained, varying but 

 little except for a few feet at the bot- 

 tom wall in severe weather. The wider 

 house is heated by a No. 10 sectional 

 steam boiler, with one 3-inch main and 

 eleven 1%-ineh flows and returns dis- 

 tributed as described for the other house. 



Both these houses are devoted to veg- 

 etables, growing three or four crops of 

 lettuce and one of cucumbers from Oc- 

 tober to June, or beginning with cucum- 

 bers in September, followed by two crops 

 of lettuce and ending the season with 

 another crop of cucumbers. Mr. Wein- 

 schenk says these houses are especially 

 adapted for these crops and under favor- 

 able conditions, with good stocky plants, 

 lettuce is usually ready in about six to 

 seven weeks in mid-winter, often averag- 

 ing ten to twelve ounces each. Grand 

 Rapids is the variety grown, planted 

 8xS inches. But cucumbers are the most 

 profitable crop, the plants fruiting heav- 

 ily in the fine light. Jlr. Weinschenk 

 built the wider house after having tested 

 the other, the plans and material being 

 supplied by the John C. Moniager Co., 

 Chicago. He says that he is satisfied 

 that where these wide houses can be 

 erected they possess many advantages 

 over a range of smaller ones, getting 

 much more light by eliminating shade 

 from gutters or walls. There is also 

 economy in construction and heating and 

 Mr. Weinschenk says they are much 

 more convenient to work in. 



TOMATOES. 



I can sell a good many tomatoes during 

 .Juno and .July. How "long does it take 

 from the time the flower is set until the 



fruit is ready to pick? Can I grow them 

 in pots and plant out about May 20? 

 What size pot would be required and 

 how far advanced would the plants have 

 to be at that time? It is intended to 

 grow them to one or two stems. What 

 variety would be best and when should 

 seed be sown? L. N. 



The time between the setting of the 

 flower and ripening of the fruit depends 

 so much on the weather that no definite 

 time could be specified, but under aver- 

 age conditions it would probably be from 

 six to eight weeks. Seeds should be 

 sown not later than the middle of Febru- 

 ary, and the plants kept growing on 

 and moved up without a check. They 

 will need S-inch pots before the time 

 of planting out. We grew a lot with 

 this same end in view last year and they 

 proved quite a success. Although the 

 plants could have been held over in 6- 

 inch pots we considered that the larger 

 shift was necessary to avoid a check 

 which would have resulted if the plants 

 had been pot-bound at time of planting 

 out. Even with this precaution and care- 

 ful hardening off before planting out 

 they lost quite a few of the bottom 

 leaves, but it did not interfere with the 

 ripening of the fruit, several trusses of 

 which were set on the plants while still 

 in the pots. As to variety the most 

 productive one we had was Sterling 

 Castle, though the fruit of this was 

 rather small. Lorillard was good, the 

 fruit being larger. I chose these two 

 varieties because I knew they were free 

 setters, but I should think any good 

 early variety would act all right. 



W. S. Croydon. 



PARSLEY. 



This is one vegetable that no one need 

 be in any doubt about growing, as it 

 always finds a ready sale, being univer- 

 sally used by all sorts and conditions of 

 people. The thrifty housewife would 

 not consider her soup complete unless she 

 used a few blades of parsley to flavor it, 

 neither would the high-class chef con- 

 sider many of the numerous creations of 

 his fertile brain complete unless gar- 

 nished by the same indispensable green : 

 for him there is nothing just as good; 

 it must be parsley and parsley only. And, 



