152 GREENHOUSES 



to be injurious to plants; but after you have 

 filled the benches with soil and used them 

 the first year, the soil generally eats or ab- 

 sorbs this chemical, and the roots of carna- 

 tion plants or anything else cling to the ce- 

 ment slabs the same as they do to slate. A 

 good remedy to get rid of this so that it will 

 not injure the plants is simply to put air- 

 slaked lime or rather heavy whitewash on 

 the inside of the bench, and that seems to 

 protect the plants from coming in contact 

 with the chemical mentioned." 



Height and Width of Benches. The 

 height of greenhouse benches is largely de- 

 termined by that most convenient for 

 the operator to work. This in turn depends 

 upon the nature of the plants to be grown. 

 For example, when low-growing plants like 

 lettuce are grown, a bench 32 inches high is 

 about right; but when carnations are grown 

 this may be so high as to make disbudding 

 difficult. This refers to the distance from 

 the top of the walk to the top of the sides 

 of the bench. 



The width of the bench depends on the 

 width of the house, on the arrangement of 

 the benches, and to some extent on the kind 



