THE MINNESOTA 



HORTICULTURIST. 



VOL. 24. MAY, 1896. NO. 5. 



A TOMATO FORCING HOUSE. 



F. W. LEAVITT, MINNEAPOLIS. 



It is a wonderful thing- to see nearly 3,(X!0 tomato vines about ten 

 feet in height, weighted with the rich fruit in midwinter, in Minne- 

 sota, and it is a sight which would have been pronounced impossi- 

 ble by the most visionary gardener a few years ago. Yet that was 

 the real vision which met the eyes of the writer, as he stepped into 

 the tomato house of Fred Busch, at Richfield, Minn., on the tenth 

 daj- of Februarj' la^t. One almost has the idea of being in a south- 

 ern forest, so great and imposing are the vines, and so soft and warm 

 is the atmosphere prevading the place. 



It was not with ever}- assurance of success that Mr. Busch built 

 this large house, which required 20,0<X) feet of glass iu its construc- 

 tion. Gardeners of experience and large information assured this 

 bold innovator that he could not get sufiicient ventilation for a 

 house of the size he proposed to build, and manj- other objections 

 to it were offered him. But Mr. Busch had an idea, and he lost no 

 time in putting it into execution. That, he thought, was the surest 

 way of proving or disproving the practicabilitj- of his plans. He had 

 been operating under . 10,000 feet of glass and had gained some val- 

 uable experience. 



The result of Mr. Busch's latest building venture was a forcing 

 house G0x3(JO feet, built on the side of a hill and running east and 

 west, with the north wall 18 feet high and the wall on the south 5 feet 

 Cinches. Clear cypress lumber was used in the construction of this 

 and his eleven other greenhouses. Tliis luml)er has been givingthe 

 l)est of satisfaction wherever used for greenhouse jmrposes. The 

 house was made with an incline of three feet from east to west to 

 facilitate the use of drainage and steam pipes. The roof is sup- 

 ported by seven rows of purlins, four of these being supported in 

 turn by one and one-<|uarter inch pipe and three by one inch pipe. 

 To the bottom of each of these pipes is attached a plate which is 

 solidly anchored two feet under ground in cement. This device pre- 

 vents danger from a high wind or from settling. 



There are 70 ventilators placed at the top of the roof, 74 along 

 the north wall and 8,1, 3x4 feet, in the south wall. This gives 

 a complete ventilation. In SepteJiiber, when the thermometer out- 

 side was 95 degrees the temperature inside the house was but 10 de- 



