THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



229 



Ventilation Sashes Alternating on the Two Sides of the Ridge. 



fill it and return it the same or next day. 

 People ask you to get their vase started 

 in the greenhouse. We should need a 

 circus tent to hold them all, and they are 

 none the better for getting the tender 

 growth of the greenhouse. Fill them up 

 and away with them. 



Decoration day, or about that time, is 

 the only time of the year that we are 

 truly miserable, but with all the hurry 

 and vexation, we survive, or have, up to 

 date. 



VENTILATION. 



Ventilation is primarily afforded to 

 keep down temperature when the sun s 

 rays have heated up the houses, but to 

 give and afford a free circulation of 

 fresh air to the plants is quite as much 

 a reason for ventilation. Our large glass 

 of the present day quickly runs up the 

 temperature with the sun shining, and if 

 ventilation is not faithfully attended to 

 at the proper time great harm is done, 

 rind in the case of roses months of hard 

 and faithful labor can be ruined. 



The necessity and benefit of ventila 

 tion is too well known to need any 

 lengthy remarks. It is the mental side 

 of the business. It wants watching like 

 the water gauge of a steam engine, but 

 more scientific. It is the same sort of 

 science that is brought into use by Mary 

 Murphy when she knows the potatoes are 

 just done, and cooking is a science. You 

 can lay down rules that this or that house 

 should be ventilated when the thermome 

 ter registers a certain degree, but to that 

 should be added some knowledge and 

 judgment. In rose growing it is perhaps 

 the most particular of all work connected 

 with them, and if a man has charge of 

 three or four houses it will almost keep 

 him busy in the spring and fall months 

 running from one to the other regulating 

 the ventilation. 



A man should be able to tell without 

 even looking at the thermometer whether 

 the sashes are too much or not enough 



open. The thermometer is of course an 

 infallible guide and authority, but there 

 are times when even a few degrees higher 

 is of less injury to the plants than a keen, 

 cutting draught of air. Often the sashes 

 are opened six inches when two inches 

 would be plenty. There is one good rule 

 and that is to begin ventilating early and 

 take it off early. Too many are guilty of 

 waiting till perhaps 10 o clock on a 

 bright morning and then opening up 

 wide; first subjecting the plants to an 

 enervating heat and then giving them a 

 sudden chill. By shutting up early in the 

 afternon you have utilized the sun heat 

 and saved coal, and sun heat is always 

 better for the plants than fire heat. 

 There are thousands of houses throughout 

 the country that are sadly inadequate in 

 ventilation, and in such houses roses, car 

 nations and all our flowering plants will 

 draw up weak. 



What we are most concerned about is 

 not the mistakes that have been made, 

 but to prevent any more. In houses that 

 are attached it is obvious that side venti 

 lation can only be given on the two ex 

 terior walls, and in any rose house we 

 would not have any ventilation in the 

 side wall or glass, even if it cost nothing, 

 because we could not use it. In plant 

 houses or in carnation houses side venti 

 lation is perhaps desirable, but I think 

 not at all necessary if ample ventilation 

 is given at the ridge. 



In equal-span carnation houses we 

 have in addition to the ordinary venti 

 lating sashes on the south side large 

 sashes about 3x5 hinged on the north 

 side, eight feet between each. We have no 

 ventilating gear attached, but after set 

 tled warm weather, or when there is no 

 longer danger of weather that would hurt 

 carnations, we raise these sashes eight or 

 nine inches on blocks of wood, and then 

 tie them securely down, leaving them so 

 till October 1. Believing that if ample 

 ventilation is provided on one side of the 

 ridge it is enough, and we do believe it 

 from experience and observation of other 



people s houses and crops, then it is use 

 less to discuss the matter further. 



Ventilation should be provided the 

 whole length of a house. If it is wanted 

 at all in one place in the roof then it is 

 wanted the entire length, and it must be 

 better to give three inches all along than 

 six inches only in spots. This will apply 

 not only to a rose house but any green 

 house for whatsoever use intended. 

 Though you may need but one inch of 

 ventilation throughout the whole month 

 of January, in June our climate demands 

 the utmost you can give. It takes no 

 more glass to have continuous ventila 

 tion, no more in cost of apparatus except 

 a few arms, and only a few dollars more 

 in extra ventilators. 



In the long-span-to-the-south house the 

 ventilation is always on the south side 

 of the ridge, and the same in equal-span 

 houses whose ridges run east and west. 

 In the short-span-to-the-south the ventila 

 tion is on the north side of the ridge. 

 In houses where the ridge runs north and 

 south, always equal-span, the ventilation 

 should be on the east side. You can 

 open the sashes earlier and our prevailing 

 winds are frqm the west. We are often 

 able to give an inch of air at the ridge 

 when cold outside without feeling any 

 draught, whereas if the ventilators were 

 hinged at the ridge and opened two feet 

 down the sash, we should feel a draught. 

 And if it is good for one house or one 

 kind of plant it certainly is for all. So 

 that is the way to hang your ventilators ; 

 let them all open at the ridge. 



Since writing the above we built a 

 number of equal-span rose houses run 

 ning east and west. After considerable 

 study of the question we decided to place 

 the ventilators on the north side of the 

 ridge, hinging them on the headers and 

 opening at the ridge, and it has turned 

 out satisfactorily. If the latter plan is 

 followed one lifting apparatus will do 

 the work that would require two if the 

 ventilators were hinged at the ridge. It 

 is a difference between lifting a fifty-six- 



