CHAPTER XVI. 



SUNLIGHT AND VENTILATION PRIME FACTORS IN CONSTRUCT- 

 ING CARNATION HOUSES -BUTTING GLASS -HEAT- 

 ING RADIATING SURFACE REQUIRED FOR 

 GLASS SURFACE. 



IT is not designed to give details relative to glass houses for forc- 

 ing carnations, but to allude to a few of the main features that 

 should be in houses to supply the most imperative demands of 

 carnation plants. In the architectural construction, heating and 

 ventilating plant houses there are firms with great experience and 

 large capital who have spent their lives in perfecting these several 

 departments. They must be deferred to. 



There are but three primary systems for heating green- 

 houses, the brick flue, hot water, and steam methods. They are 

 evolutionary. For a small glass surface, say two or three, eleven 

 by forty-foot houses, with the absolute certainty that there would 

 never be a demand for an increased capacity, I would use the old 

 brick flue as the cheapest and the best primary school in floricul- 

 ture, and equal to the means of some and the ambition of others. 

 Floriculture is centralizing and capitalizing and in its larger centers 

 of trade where capacity and facilities are great for growing carna- 

 tion flowers for market there would be a hazy hope of success from 

 the flue system of heating. 



For a larger area of glass, hot water can be adopted with suc- 

 cessful results. With a large extent of glass and a corresponding 

 value of stock to be cared for, a stoker and night watchman are im- 

 peratively demanded. The steam system comes to the front as the 

 ultimate in greenhouse heating until Thermo-Electricity is suc- 

 cessfully installed. The relative cost of hot water and steam for 

 any definite quantity of glass can be more certainly obtained by 



