GreenKouse Construction for Veg'etable Groovers" 



THE growing of vegetables in Essex 

 county is not a business of choice 

 with us, but of necessity. For 

 years the fruit industry was the 

 main industry of the section along the 

 shores of Lake Erie. Great areas were 

 planted in peach trees, and many grow- 

 ers had all that they were worth in- 

 vested in the business. Then a frost 

 came and wiped out the orchards. We 

 then began to look for something else 

 to grow, with peaches as a side line. 

 With that end in view, we put up some 

 small greenhouses in a very modest 

 way and began growing tomatoes, 

 which proved very profitable As a 

 rule, our tomatoes mature two or three 

 weeks earlier than those grown in any 

 other part of the Dominion, and there- 

 fore we were able to sell our tomatoes 

 at a good price. We again replanted 

 our peach orchards, and about five 

 years ago, they were cleaned out a 

 second time, and thus we had to go 

 into vegetable growing on a large scale. 



Our first houses were small and were 

 not convenient. The stress of the 

 business made it necessary to improve 

 them. We find it important that the 

 greenhouses shall be located as con- 

 venient to the dwelling-house as pos- 

 sible, because it is something that has 

 to be looked after very closely. If it 

 is far away from his dwelling-house, 

 the grower is much hampered. 



We have strong winds from the 

 south-west that come across the lake. 

 We like to have our greenhouses shel- 

 tered from these winds, because they 

 are easier to heat, and it is easier on 

 the house. In no case, however, is it 

 advisable, either for defence or pro- 

 tection, to exclude the house from all 

 the benefit of the sunlight ; we want 

 every possible ray of sunlight. 



Our first houses were built of chiefly 

 wood and glass, and their life was very 

 short. I know one that was put up 

 that began to decay the next year. 

 When there is any chance for the water 

 to lodge, the timber begins to go down 

 at once, and for that reason we have 

 discarded the wood as much as pos- 

 sible. We are now using cement. It 

 is cheao, and once constructed it 

 does not rot out. For supports, we 

 use gas-pioes, set in cement, being 

 very careful to place a pole six inches 

 below the ground to keep the gas-pipe 

 from rotting off at the surface. We 

 have a great deal of chestnut. I do 

 not know whether or not it is as good 

 as Cyprus, but we find Cyprus to be 

 good, and very much better than pine, 

 and I think that the Hfe of chestnut is 

 two or three times as long as pine. 



*A portion of an a-ldress delivered at the convention 

 of the Ontario Vegetable Growers' Association last 

 November. 



J. D. Fraser, Leamington, Ontario 



Question. — How does it compare with 

 the price of Cyprus? 



Answer. — I do not know. We can 

 buy it at very reasonable prices. 



The next material is paint. One 

 should never put up any timber in a 

 greenhouse without first painting it; 

 that is very important. 



There has been considerable discus- 

 sion and difference of opinion between 

 greenhouse growers as to the kind of 

 glass to use, whether to use butted 

 glass or lipped glass. If you use lipped 

 glass, you must lay it in putty; if the 

 glass is quite square and well cut, 

 butted glass is all right. If the glass 

 does not fit, it will leak, and leaks are 

 injurious. I -think twenty by twenty 

 is the right size to use. 



Mr. T. Delworth, Weston.— How 

 heavy do you have the bars? 



A. — About two and one-half inches 

 is the standard; it depends somewhat 

 on the system of construction used. 

 From a vegetable grower's standpoint, 

 I would not build a house over from 

 80 to 100 feet. My reason for that is 

 that if a house is too wide, it is hard 

 to get enough air into it, and in order 

 to finish vegetable plants in the house, 

 they have to get a free circulation of 

 air or they will be too short. 



Q. — How do you construct the roof? 



A. — We built our last house four- 

 teen feet, ridge and furrow. We 

 have the glass laid east and west 

 or north and south; we have a house 

 each way. The east house, built a 

 couple of years ago, is running north 

 and south, with the sun striking on 

 the side in the morning and in the 

 evening on the other side. The house 

 I built this spring is in shorter spans 

 of fourteen feet, and set the other way. 

 Where the house ends, there is a glass 

 slide of about three feet in six, and we 

 can open this sash on the south and 

 ventilate, and we can also open the 

 sash at the top. In May and June, 

 when it is very hot, a current of air 

 comes in. The fresh air comes in at 

 the bottom and the hot air goes out at 

 the top. It is as comfortable in the 

 house on a hot day as outside. We 

 drive our teams alongside of the house 

 and take out the plants. We have a 

 main walk in the centre and a narrow 

 footpath leading from it, and we gather 

 our plants in a low wagon and take 

 them out in that way. If the house is 

 100 feet wide, you are never more than 

 fifty feet from the centre. Where it 

 used to take five men and a team to 

 get plants out in the ordinary way, 

 one man and a team can now keep a 

 gang busy in the field. 



BENCHES 



If tomatoes are grown with the in- 



tention of maturing the crop in the 

 house, we have to start our seed about 

 the first of January, and as the days 

 are usually dark, it is hard to start the 

 seed on flat or ground benches. There- 

 fore, it is a good idea, in building a 

 house, to have a few raised benches in 

 order to get bottom heat. You can 

 always manage to get good plants by 

 using bottom heat to get them started. 

 After they are started, you can use the 

 ordinary flat benches. If you have a 

 little border of cement running round 

 them, it is so much the better, but 

 you can get along without it if you 

 wish. 



The matter of heating, I suppose, 

 is the greatest item of expense. Vege- 

 table growers have been put to a great 

 deal of expense through the ordinary 

 plumbers of the local towns under- 

 taking to lay pipes in the greenhouses. 

 I have found for my own part that it is 

 very foolish to give a man a contract 

 to put in the pipes in a greenhouse 

 unless you are sure that he knows 

 what he ^s doing, or unless you know 

 yourself how to manage it. The first 

 time I had pipes put in, they were al- 

 most useless, and I had to take them 

 out again. I then learned how to lay 

 pipes myself. When a person is ex- 

 perienced and knows what he is doing, 

 it is all right to go on with it. because 

 any ordinary plumber can arrange the' 

 pipes if vou show him how to do it. 

 But the ordinary plumber does not 

 know anything about heating a green- 

 house, and therefore it is best to give 

 it to some person who thoroughly un- 

 derstands it. 



Mr. Delworth. — What material do 

 vou use for gutters? 



A. — Two by five chestnut scantling. 

 We support them by gas-pipes, and 

 where the rafters strike this two by five, 

 there is a bolt that hes over the scant- 

 ling. We take a brace and bit and 

 bore holes near the edge of the scant- 

 ling, and then cut out with a chisel 

 two little comers, and the bolts drop 

 in there. There is no chance for the 

 water to lodge, and the rafters strike 

 against this piece and the end is cut 

 off square. The bolt goes through and 

 touches the beam, and there is no 

 contact point except the one small 

 corner. The gutter is made of gal- 

 vanized iron, with the edge turned 

 down about half an inch to make it 

 stiff, and that fits into the notch in 

 the rafter. 



Mr. Delworth. — Do you heat by steam 

 or hot water? 



A. — Steam; our snowfall is very 

 light. 



Mr. Delworth. — From my expenence 

 of heating from hot water, if I had a 



