November 3, 1921 



The Florists* Review 



23 



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NEW GREENHOUSE FEATURES 



POSSIBLY I can best approach the 

 subject of new features of green- 

 house construction by a comparison 

 of the work as it is done today with 

 that of years ago, when the average 

 greenhouse was indeed insignificant as 

 to size, though not insignificant as to 

 its importance in the early stages of 

 development in this profession. 



I need not take you back through the 

 dead past to the days when a greenhouse 

 eight, ten or twelve feet wide was 

 considered a fair width and twenty-five 

 feet long was often called a fair length. 



Height. 



While on the subject of heights I 

 can best illustrate the difference by 

 stating what I heard one of the Poehl- 

 mann brothers, of Morton Grove, say, 

 that one of the first houses they had 

 built was narrow and low, consisting of 

 two solid beds on either side of a deep 

 sunken path, made necessary in order 

 to give them room to stand up when 

 they got in the house; to get into the 

 house it was necessary to enter on hands 

 and knees through a door like that in a 

 dog house; after getting inside they 

 dropped into the path 

 and then could stand 

 up and work the beds 

 on either side. 



So rapid has been 

 the development of 

 Poehlmann Bros. Co. 

 that within a few 

 years we furnished to 

 the company forty- 

 six houses, three sep- 

 arate orders being 

 for thirteen each, 

 thirty-nine all told, 

 each 250 feet long, 

 making one block 

 thirteen houses wide 

 in four 250-foot units, 

 in length totaling 

 1,000 feet (the first 

 thirteen were fur- 

 nished by other man- 

 ufacturers). The 

 point on this I want 

 to emphasize is that, 

 while the early house 

 had oaves at the 

 ground like a dog 

 house, the new range, 

 1,000 feet long, has 

 gutters from ten feet 

 to twelve feet high — 

 the difference in 

 height, running from 

 twelve feet in center 

 to ten feet at ends, 

 being to dispose of 

 rain and melting 

 snow. 



Much progress has 

 been made in the 

 widths of glass used. 

 Years ago houses had 

 been built with glass 

 six, eight, ten and 

 twelve inches wide; 

 now it rarely occurs 

 that any house is 

 built with less than 



Paper on "Npw Features of Greenhouse Con- 

 struction," by I'liilip J. Foley, read at tlie eighth 

 annual convention of the Tennessee State Flo- 

 rists' Association, at Chattanooga, November 1. 



16-inch glass, while many are built with 

 glass eighteen inches to twenty-two 

 inches wide and some large ranges are 

 built with glass set the 24-inch wide 

 way, giving a wonderful percentage of 

 light^ — ^almost all daylight, hampered 

 only by about five per cent of shade 

 from roofbars or rafters, which shade 

 is constantly traveling and hence, by 

 reason of movement, retards but little 

 the necessary light. While the purlins, 

 of course, cast some shadow, being 

 mainly either pipe or angle iron as 

 against the old heavy wood purlin, their 

 light retarding is insignificant. 



With the demand for higher gutters 

 or eaves naturally comes demand for 

 wider houses, partly for looks, but 

 largely for elimination of shade such as 

 is naturally cast by eave plates or gut- 

 ters in the narrower houses, the higher 

 gutter or eave plate also greatly helping 

 by diffusing the shade. 



Ventilation being of vital importance 

 to plant life and growth on account of 



Philip J. Foley. 



the necessity of oxj'gen, much has been 

 done to further proper ventilation in 

 the way of ventilators on both sides of 

 the ridge, either continuous or five 

 lights in length with one light between; 

 also with the aid of large sashes, as well 

 as one or more doors in gables, serving 

 the dual purpose of entry of people and 

 air through doors, and of soil, manure, 

 etc., as well as air, through the gable 

 sashes, now commonly referred to as 

 wheeling sashes. 



Ventilation. 



Where the class of stock grown per- 

 mits, side sashes may be used to excel- 

 lent advantage, but in the cases of many 

 rose growers averse to any side ventila- 

 tion that permits cold drafts on roses or 

 other tender plants or blooms, wall 

 vents can be used below the side 

 benches to good advantage, as the fresh 

 air obtained in this manner is warmed 

 by the contact with heating pipes under 

 the benches. Though fresh and pure, 

 the chill is removed, and the warm, fresh 

 air benefits the plants instead of injur- 

 ing them, as it would coming in direct 

 from side vents if still cold. 



Eeverting for a 

 moment to speak 

 again of the advan- 

 tages of higher and 

 wider houses, espe- 

 cially higher at the 

 gutter, I speak of the 

 case of Fred Munz- 

 ing, of Chicago, for 

 whom we just com- 

 pleted some new 

 houses, at Cullom and 

 Francisco avenues. 

 At the insistent and 

 earnest solicitation of 

 my son, IMiili]), Jr., 

 Mr. Munzing finally 

 was ])revailt'd on to 

 permit raising the 

 gutters one foot 

 liigher than he de- 

 sired to build for 

 growing pot plants, 

 and he reports that 

 during the extremely 

 hot weather this sum- 

 mer, thou^jh the new 

 houses were tightly 

 glazed, while glass in 

 the old ones was more 

 or less loose, the tem- 

 perature in the new 

 houses ran several de- 

 grees cooler than in 

 the old ones. The pot 

 plants grown were of 

 the s;ime varieties, 

 but those in the 

 newer houses clearly 

 showed a mucli better 

 growth and stood the 

 excessive s u in m e r 

 heat Ijetter. 



Another instance of 

 the difference in 

 heights of houses and 

 jx'rhaps more remark- 

 al)le is that of a vege- 

 table grower in Min- 

 nesota who liad a 



(Contlriui<l on page 77 ) 



