Septembkr 4, 1913. 



The Florists' Review 



SCREENING GLASS 

 iif AGAINST HAIL* 



The Florists' Hail Association last 

 forty-one per cent of its losses 





lOME time ago The Review 

 published, among ita brief 

 news notes, a suggestive 

 item from the Kramer 

 Greenhouse, at Mankato, 

 Kan. In the item Mrs. Kra- 

 mer, proprietor of the greenhouse, was 

 quoted as saying: "The Kramer Green- 

 house now has a covering of hail screen, 

 the best possible insurance against a 

 repetition of last year's smash-up." 



Of course it is generally kncTvfrn that 

 the protection or insurance of glass is 

 an especially perplexing problem in 

 Kansas and the neighboring southwest 

 states, on account of the eccentricities 

 of the climate there, the sudden, unex- 

 pected and sometimes disastrous per- 

 formances of the elements. The insur- 

 ance of greenhouse glass in the locality 

 indicated is, in the language of the in- 

 surance trade, an extra hazardous risk 

 as compared with the risk in other parts 

 of the United States. Hence t^e hail 

 storms in Kan^s and two or three other 

 states are not only a source of vexation 

 to the florists of that particular region, 

 but also to the Florists' Hail Associa- 

 tion, which must suffer a large propor- 

 tion of the loss, and to the members of 

 that association throughout the country, 

 who are the original contributors of the 

 funds. 



A Kind of Insurance. 



In the case of the Kramer Green- 

 house, Mrs. Kramer evidently believes 

 that the plan she Ijas adopted is the best 

 solution of the diflSculty. The protec- 

 tion of the glass by wire netting is a 



form of "insurance" that is especially 

 satisfactory to her for two reasons: 

 First, it insures her against all the in- 

 terruptions of business and of plant 

 growth, and all the general inconven- 

 ience and annoyance that accompany 

 the breaking of glass, however prompt- 

 ly the repairs may be made; second, it 

 insures her against worry when she sees 

 a storm approaching. At least, that is 

 some of the reasoning that she used 

 when she put the wire protection on 

 the greenhouse, and she gave no indi- 

 cation of having changed her mind a 

 few weeks later, when she sent to The 

 Review a photograph of the house. 



The Kramer Greenhouse was built in 

 1912, and is owned and operated by Mrs. 

 G. 14. Kramer, Sr. The main building, 

 as seen in the. illustration, is 20x100 

 feet, with a brick office building, 20x24, 

 at the north, and a small ell, not visible 

 in the picture, at the west of the office. 

 One week after its completion, almost 

 every pane of glass in the building was 

 broken out by hail. After several days 

 spent in picking up and carting out 

 broken glass, replacing damaged stock, 

 etc., Mrs. Kramer decided that once 

 covering the entire greenhouse with hail 

 screen would be much cheaper than re- 

 glazing the building each year, to say 

 nothing of the nerve strain every time 

 a cloud might heave in sight. And this 

 is what was done: 



How the Screen Was Erected. 

 Eighteen 12-foot telephone poles were 

 set, nine on each side of the building, 

 spaced an equal distance apart and set 



year suffered 

 in four states 



three feet in the ground and one and 

 one-half feet out from the wall. Near 

 the top of each pole a hole was bored, 

 large enough to allow the insertion of 

 a %-inch pipe. Twelve iron posts were 

 made, two feet long, with a V-shaped 

 base to fit on the ridge. The top of 

 each of these ridge posts was also so 

 constructed as to allow a %-inch pipe to 

 pass through, and galvanized pipe was 

 used on the ridge, to prevent the forma- 

 tion of rust and the consequent stalling 

 of the glass. The posts are so set as 

 to provide a clear space of two feet at 

 the ridge and over two and one-half 

 feet at the gutter, between the hail 

 screen and the glass which it protects, 

 thus allowing plenty of space for the 

 operation of ventilators or the repair- 

 ing of glass, and also to guard against 

 the danger of snow packing in beneath 

 the screen and breaking the glass. 



Common stove-pipe wire was used in 

 sewing the strips of screen together, 

 the screen being lapped one-half inch. 

 The screen is permitted to extend over 

 the sides one and one-half feet and 

 three feet out from the building at the 

 end, thus helping to protect the sides 

 and end from wind-driven hail storms. 

 Twelve iron bars, each five feet long, 

 were screwed to the rafters under the 

 iron ridge posts, tying the rafters so 

 that the weight of the screen pressing 

 down would not cause the walls to 

 ^spread out. The Vo-inch mesh screen, 

 Mrs. Kramer says, does not seem to bar 

 out the sunshine in the least. 



The materials for this protection 



The Kramer GreenhouK at Mankato, Kan^ Protected from Hail by a Wire Screen. 



