FLORICULTURE. 403 



beauty and pleasure of home life, the plants do better cared for in 

 one than in a living- room, that they can be attached to any house 

 and should be an adjunct of every farmhouse, no matter how small 

 it is. The "Irishman's shanty" would be made lovely by the 

 addition of a plant room. 



Cost of the Structure. — I have asked an architect and carpenter to 

 make me a plan and estimate, which I herewith submit: 



ESTIMATE. 



IV2 cord stone, lime, sand, labor $18.00 



1 barrel Portland cement, sand, labor 10.00 



Sills, posts, casings 5 00 



1 door, $4 . 50 ; 1 door (storm ), $2.25 6 .75 



1 set sliding doors, 7x7-6x1^4 35.00 



Material for roof, ready to cover; 2 days' labor on same 14 00 



Ceiling 7.50 



2 squares of tin and labor 14.00 



Sash @ 17 cents a light (172) 24 24 



46 lights, 15x26, A, fe 17 cents 7 82 



46 lights, 15 X 26, AA, @ 20 cents 9 20 



40 lights, 16 X 26, A, @ 19 cents 7 60 



40 lights, 16 X 26, AA, («( 22^2 cents 9. 00 



43 pounds putty, (gi 5 cents 2.15 



Glazing 10.00 



Painting, 130 yards, @ 16 cents 20.80 



Total .♦. $205.06 



Use A glass on inside sash. 

 Use AA glass on outside sash. 



This is for a first-class addition to any house that is worth from 

 $1,000 to .'^10,000, and contemplates having it built upon contract. It 

 could be made inuch more expensive, or a person could do a good 

 share of the work himself, such as building the foundation, making 

 the cement floor and doing the glazing and painting. The roof could 

 be covered with three thicknesses of tar felt paper, using equal parts 

 of coal tar and resin to cover it with, over which put on gravel, and 

 so make the best kind of a roof and save $10 on expense. The plan 

 provides for rolling glass doors, but they could be left out and oil- 

 cloth curtains made to roll up and let down when spraying the 

 plants, at a saving of $30; so that, with these alterations and doing 

 what is suggested oneself, it would save a cash outlay of about 

 $88 and bring the cost within $125. 



Let me add a word about the plants. Study to find out what will 

 do the best with you, and confine your selection to a few kinds, but 

 have a plenty of them, I would rather see a plant room full of one 

 kind of plants that were fine speciinens of their kind, than an indis- 

 criminate juinble of all sorts, from the ugly growing night-bloomino- 

 cereus to a fern. This is twice, I think, I have referred to ferns in this 

 article, and now I will speak about them for the third time. What 

 is there more lovely? They thrive well in partial shade, and I would 

 like to see a plant room with nothing else. With ferns and the fra- 

 grant bulbous plants, sacred lilies, freesias, tuberoses, hyacinths and 

 such, I could be supremely happy. Do not try to grow roses, unless 

 you have an abundance of sunlight. 



In conclusion, let me propose to the farmers who chance to read 

 this article, that if you have kept your fruit garden in good condi- 

 tion, you can sell enough surplus from it in one year to build this 

 addition to your house, or your wife can raise enough chickens and 

 turkeys to do it. I am not particular how, but get it. 



