952 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



OCTOBBB 6, 1904. 



wood does. Iron is attacked by chemical 

 action only, causing it to rust away. This 

 ia prevented, or should be, by paint. At 

 the same time that paint is a necessity 

 for other reasons (light) and pays its 

 own way. In structural parts that can 

 not be painted, avoid iron. Use con- 

 crete tile, etc., where practical. This is 

 the modern trend. Wood is akin to our 

 ovm bodies; it deteriorates from diseases 

 and in unhealthy pjaces dies an early 

 death. 



Between the disease germ of the de- 

 caying wood of the old wooden houses 

 and the disease germ that attacks the 

 live wood of your plants, when by mis- 

 taken treatment or any other cause they 

 become weak and susceptible to disease, 

 there may be a closer relationship than 

 you think, all germs having great re- 

 productive power and their offspring the 

 faculty of changing form and appearance 

 to suit new conditions. 



I have a living example of the ten- 

 dency of wooden greenhouses to harbor 

 injurious insects and disease. In sub- 

 nutting a proposal to build permanent 

 houses, the owner did not want them; 

 he said that in the course of about eight 

 years he found his houses got so lousy 

 that the best thing to do was to pull 

 them down, burn the refuse and build 

 new. I do not say but what he is per- 

 fectly right; he seems to be a success- 

 ful man; but his ideas on this as on 

 other phases of greenhouse work are pe- 

 culiar as compared with others. That is 

 all I have to say in their favor, but they 

 are his, he owns them and takes a pride 

 in them, and that is, as I said before, a 

 good thing. His pride in this case leads 

 to a very thorough house-cleaning at least 

 once in eight years. 



Another aspect is light. Every ray 

 of light let into your houses has its 

 value, I do not care whether it comes 

 from the north, south, east or west. 1 

 took a vote on this question from some 

 of the live carnation growers in the west 

 this spring. It was unanimous with those 

 I questioned. One man called his head 

 grower up and asked him which bench 

 he took those prize carnations from. He 



odds the worst in the house. Another 

 man, with glass in the north wall of a 

 rose house, plants tomatoes and other 

 tall stuff in the noith bed because as he 

 says, "You know the north light is no 

 use for roses." This man has excellent 

 tomatoes. It is the light that counts. 

 Let it in, and this can be done more 

 fully with iron construction than with 

 wood. 



Another aspect is expense. It is said, 

 or granted, that iron is cheaper in the 

 long run, but wh it about the immediate 

 present with a slim purse? Well, I have 

 an old drawing and specification here for 

 a wooden gjileenhouse. The housfe is 

 twenty feet wide, with raised wooden 

 benches, the foundation cedar posts. 

 The specification ends: "a house of this 

 kind would cost heie (Ontario) about 

 $8.00 per foot, probably a little more, 

 heating and everything included." Eight 

 dollars a foot for a twenty-foot house is 

 equal to 40 cents per square foot of 

 ground covered. Our experience is that 

 you can put up the most modern green- 

 house to-day, including permt^nent tile 

 beds or benches, with heating, ventilation 

 and everything else included, ready to 

 plant, for about 45 cents per square foot 

 of ground covered, including power house, 

 sheds and all such accesories. My hearers 

 may form their own conclusions. 



An examinatipn of this old plan opens 

 an interesting question. Have the 

 gardeners themselves kept pace with the 

 other improvements? It is not compara- 

 tively so in other walks of life. It has 

 been the saying in other trades that we 

 are not raising enough apprentices, that 

 we are not making mechanics any more, 

 to take the places of those who are drop- 

 ping out. The old-time millwiight who 

 could build a mill from top to bottom, 

 including his engine and boiler, or his 

 dams and water wheels, and run the 

 whole business when through, is a thing 

 of the past. Then it took seven years 

 to learn a tiade, now about two weeks 

 immediate experience at one little branch 

 on the outside of the tree of knowledge 

 and the same pay is demanded though 

 the trunk over and from which the other 



Field of Callas at E J. Vaw^ter's, Ocean Park, CaL 



(The only grreenhouseB on the place are the lath stnu-tures on the ri^ht.) 



pointed to the north bench of the house. 

 The house was even span, with glass on 

 all sides down to the level of the beds. 

 Another man had a wooden wall on the 

 north side of an even-span house. In 

 this case the north bench was by long 



has laboriously climbed for those seven 

 years may never have been seen by him. 

 How is it that when that house was de- 

 signed you could build an eight-foot 

 bench, put in eight rows of plants, and 

 hire a first-class gardener to work it for 



half the pay that you can get a man for 

 to-day to work a four-foot bench? My 

 last experience is that four rows of plante 

 is claimed to be too much; they have got 

 to be "staggered," reducing the bench 

 to three rows and a half, with three 

 benches to a twenty-two-foot house. 



Gentlemen, I am no gardener, but I 

 can put a few figures together, and what 

 they tell me is this: That if to-day you 

 have got to build a twenty-two-foot house 

 to cover ten and a half rows of plants 

 where, in the paet, a twenty-foot 

 house would cover sixteen rows, you have 

 a handicap of forty per cent in area in 

 growing space to glass that you have had 

 to pay for and have to keep heated. I 

 would like this question ventilated for 

 the good of the craft, since it affects the 

 build of my houses and the recommenda- 

 tions I mase to my clients. I have ques- 

 tioned a good many of the old growers 

 who still stick to the wider benches and 

 say that they raise just as much bloom 

 and as good in the center rows as any 

 other, and that whether the frame of the 

 house is iron or wood it makes no differ- 

 ence, so if the c^uestion is solved on a 

 profit or loss basis, then I want just as 

 many plants in my iron house as you 

 have in your wooden structure, and one 

 of the old-style gardeners to run it? 



The following suggestions have been 

 received. Since the expansion of the cut 

 flower trade, gardeners have expanded, 

 too, and become so fat that they cannot 

 stoop any more and demand high benches 

 and narrow, or they cannot do the work. 

 They claim, of course, to be able to 

 make up for the loss of space by the 

 superiority of their output, but, honestly, 

 gentlemen, is it so? Are Canadian-grown 

 roses any better to-day than years ago, 

 when the architect of those eight-foot 

 benches first took his flowers to New 

 York, and as some of my American 

 friends say, simply paralyzed the grow- 

 ers there, bringing home to Canada prizes 

 and cups galore? Why, gentlemen, we 

 had such a reputation at that time, not 

 through one man alone, but others as 

 well, some of whom are present here to- 

 day, that I can eye-witness to the fact 

 that the Yankees labeled their best roses 

 "grown in Canada" in order to com- 

 mand our prices! 



In support, then, of my contention, I 

 submit that we miss the gardener ap- 

 prentice whose youthful training over 

 eight-foot benches for seven years has 

 bent and moulded" him in form till he 

 can snake his arms through the bushes 

 or hump his back to pick a flower or 

 clean a bush outside the reach of an ordi- 

 nary mortal. 



What is this idea of "staggering" the 

 plants? Have any of you heard of it 

 before? It seems to me that if the rows 

 are kept square across the bench in- 

 stead of diagonally, as when "stag- 

 gered," that you have less distance to 

 reach to get at the center plants, the 

 difference being in proportion as the 

 base of a right angle triangle is to one 

 of its sides. To support the plants prac- 

 tically double the wiring is required and 

 a half row of plants lost to each bed. If 

 I am wrong will some one please call me 

 down? 



I have followed greenhouse work for 

 sixteen years and consider that in design- 

 ing a house the first question to settle 

 is the width of beds and walks, then build 

 your house to suit and stick to it. Do 

 not change your ideas before your house 

 is barely up or without the very be.«t of 

 reason for so doing. Remember the 

 proverb that it is the poor workman that 

 finds fault with his tools. Rather Jot a 



