SEPTEilBEB 5, 1907. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



Interior of the Mammoth House of the Florez Gardeas Juit After Planting. 



house and will watch closely the results 

 obtained from it. The average rose grow- 

 er feels that the ventilation in a house 

 of this width, and with no sash except at 

 the ridge, is less than he would want, 

 ■especially for Beauties. The height of 

 the house certainly makes for the easy 

 ■control of the temperature, although the 

 arratigement of heating pipes is novel. 

 As the photograph shows, the interior of 

 the house, gives the appearance of a cir- 

 cus tent, with its forest of supports and 

 its many lines of pipes beneath the glass. 

 It is understood the proprietors of this 

 remarkable house are now considering the 

 provision of side ventilation. 



GREENHOUSE CONSTRUCTION. 



[A paper by F. R. Plerson, of Tarrytown, N. 

 Y., read before the Canadian Horticultural 

 Assoclatton, In convention at London, Ont., 

 August 29, 1907.] 



The question as to the best style of 

 greenhouse construction is a most im- 

 portant one. As our business has wid- 

 ened and developed, the necessity for in- 

 creased facilities has arisen, as in other 

 mercantile lines. The ocean steamers of 

 twenty years ago bear about the same 

 relation to the leviathans that are now- 

 being built, as the small greenhouses of 

 twenty years ago bear to the large struc- 

 tures that are now being erected, any 

 one of which is as large and covers as 

 much ground as was covered formerly by 

 an entire establishment composed of 

 eight, ten or more houses. In the earlier 

 days of our business a number of houses 

 was not only desirable, but necessary. 

 In our business, however, as in other 

 branches of trade, we are fast becoming 

 specialists, growing one kind of flower 

 or plant and these in immense quantities. 

 As conditions have changed, the size of 

 the buildings has naturally increased. 

 Twenty y^ars ago 11-foot houses were 

 ;in the majority; then came the three- 



quarter span, eighteen to twenty feet 

 in width. In fact, fifteen years ago, 

 when we built a new range of four iron 

 houses, each 20x300 feet, it was consid- 

 ered a model range and was much in ad- 

 vance of anything that had been built 

 up to that time. Visitors came from 

 everywhere to inspect it. But times have 

 changed, and changed rapidly, and our 

 first model range has been duplicated to 

 such an extent in the meantime that it 

 has long ago become commonplace. At 

 that time, however, these light houses 

 were muT*h in advance of the houses in 

 general use. 



Ridge and Furrow Construction. 



But as the business grew and the ne- 

 cessity for larger houses became appar- 

 ent, what is now known as the ridge and 

 furrow open construction was introduced. 

 For economy in construction and the re- 

 turns on the investment, these are un- 

 doubtedly more economical and profit- 

 able than the 20-foot, separate, east and 

 west construction. This style has re- 

 cently been greatly improved in details 

 by the use of light iron gutters, by the 

 increased height of the gutter line, by 

 the use of larger glass, requiring fewer 

 sashbars, and by the use of light trusses 

 or posts, thus increasing the width of the 

 houses. This improvement in details has 

 resulted in an admirable structure, wliieh 

 is capable of indefinite extension, only 

 limited by the quantity to be grown of 

 one thing. 



This ^tyle has many champions, and 

 fine examples of it can be seen in the 

 immense establishment at Brampton and 

 in other Canadian cities, such as Toronto, 

 Ottawa, etc. It has also been adopted 

 very largely in the vicinity of Chicago, 

 where immense ranges have been and are 

 being built, and where roses and carna- 

 tions are the crops. 



Advantages of Single House. 



I believe, however, that the old idea of 

 single, separate houses, running east and 

 west, and greatly enlarged in width, is 

 preferable to the ridge and furrow type 

 of house. Of course, I am speaking from 

 the standpoint of the cut flower grower, 

 to whom sunlight in the midwinter 

 months of December, January and Feb- 

 ruary is of especial importance. For 

 plant growing, of course, especially palms 

 and foliage plants, the ridge and furrow 

 open construction is ideal, but for cut 

 flower growing I consider the wide, sepa- 

 rate, east and west houses immensely su- 

 perior, as these houses certainly get much 

 more sunlight, especially in the short 

 midwinter days. In fact, this is where- 

 in their superiority exists, and as win- 

 ter is the season of the year when flow- 

 ers command the highest prices, it is of 

 the utmost importance to the grower that 

 he get every ray of sunlight that can 

 possibly be secured. Such a season as 

 we experienced last winter makes this 

 doubly apparent. 



The argument in favor of the ridgo 

 and furrow open construction has been 

 that it costs less to build, and for the 

 money expended the results obtained were 

 in its favor, but by increasing the width 

 of the east and west single house this 

 advantage disappears. In contemplat- 

 ing a large addition to our establishment 

 last year, I went into the comparative 

 cost of the two styles and obtained esti- 

 mates for exactly the same area, and 

 while the single east and west house was 

 the very best style of flat rafter steel 

 construction and the ridge and furrow 

 was of the semi-iron construction only, I 

 found there was only six per cent dif- 

 ference on the total investment in favor 

 of the ridge and furrow construction, a 

 difference so small that the difference 



