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The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



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PITTSBURG 



THE MECCA 



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SMOKY CITY TO THE FORE. 



Carnationists to Assemble There. 



It •will not be many weeks before the 

 carnation growers will be wending their 

 way to Pittsburg for the annual con- 

 vention and exhibition. Naturally they 

 will want to see what may be seen out- 

 side the exhibition hall itself and it is 

 therefore especially timely to give a few 

 words of description of the largest plant 

 in the vicinity, that of the Pittsburg Cut 

 Flower Co., at Bakerstown. The post- 

 oflBce is Gibsonia, Pa. Up to a few 

 weeks ago this was the Pittsburg Eose 

 and Carnation Co. Fred Burki was 

 president, also of the Pittsburg Cut 

 Flower Co., which does a large whole- 

 sale business in Pittsburg, so it was de- 

 cided to consolidate the two corpora- 

 tions in one, having a capital of 

 $300,000. 



Mr. Burki is a quiet and modest man, 

 but a close observer, keen, sagacious, 

 progressive, energetic, practical and a 

 tireless worker. Everything he grows 

 there is money in, and he won't touch 

 anything he cannot see profit in. At the 

 same time he tries almost everything 

 new that appeals to him as being desir- 

 able and a money-maker, but be it old 

 or new, the moment it ceases to be profit- 

 able, out it goes. He is president of the 

 Pittsburg Florists' Club and vice-presi- 

 dent of the American Carnation Society. 

 Wishing to consult with him about some 

 club matters, the other day found me at 

 Bakerstown. As everything on the place 

 was so systematically handled, and the 

 crops in such excellent condition, I 

 thought some of you would like to know 

 how Mr. Burki does things; hence these 

 notes. But bear in mind I am not writ- 

 ing this for the big florists who know 

 so much already, and whose places are 

 extensive; I am doing it for the little 

 fellows who hunger for a knowledge of 

 the successes of the bigger ones. 



The Greenhouses. 



It would be useless to describe each 

 of the sixteen houses in detail. SuflSce 

 it to say that between six and seven 

 acres are covered with glass. More than 

 half of the houses are of the most 

 modern and perfect iron-frame construc- 

 tion. Those of you from the prairie lev- 

 els of Chicago, Richmond and Long Is- 

 land, when you come to the convention 

 next month, will here see something dif- 

 ferent from what you have at home, 

 where greenhouse building is "as easy 

 as rolling off a log." Here the glass 

 is spread over high hills, exposed to wind 

 and storm, and still it is a magnificent 

 success. Most of the houses are on a 

 south slope. The older ones are built on 

 a ten per cent face grade, the newer ones 

 on a sixteen per cent grade ; the latter is 

 much preferred, being lighter and sun- 

 nier. All of the newer ranges are indi- 

 vidual houses, with twenty feet space be- 

 tween them. This prevents one house 



from shading the other and is a great 

 convenience in teaming. 



The glass used on the roofs is double 

 A, put in the short way. The sides are 

 seven feet high, three feet of this being 

 wall and four feet glass. There is continu- 

 ous ventilation back and front at the 

 ridge, but on the older houses none at 

 the sides. In the larger new houses 

 panels open here and there back and 

 front, opening from the top inward, so 

 that the cold air will run up inside of 

 the glass roof and not immediately over 

 the plants. But these side ventilators 

 are seldom used, except in warm summer 

 weather. While the older houses have 

 frame walls, the newer ones are of con- 

 crete made of coal ashes. These are 

 everlasting and were made by their own 

 labor, and they didn 't cost any more than 

 would well made board sides. There is a 

 wide removable panel in the gable end 

 of each house for convenience in empty- 

 ing and filling soil. 



In many of the houses the benches are 

 wood, but as these are rotting out, they 

 are being replaced with concrete side 

 walls three to four inches thick, with 

 beds eight inches deep, bottomed with 

 4-inch common drain tile set close to- 

 gether. Mr. Burki likes these benches. 

 With them there is very little danger 

 from overwatering, the plants thrive well 

 on them, and they do not harbor fungous 

 or insect pests. 



The greenhouses are heated by steam 

 furnished from two batteries of boilers 

 set in the ravine between the hills. He 

 uses the Murphy smokeless furnaces and 



is very well pleased with them. The,, 

 are self -stoking, self -feeding and ecoQom 

 ical in fuel and labor; the combustion in 

 them is extra good and they produce Uttl } 

 smoke. For these he uses slack as fuel; 

 for the hand-stoked furnaces he uses %- 

 inch screened coal, and gets better reeult,! 

 from the slack. About smoke, he declare- 

 that his best firemen always make th'^ 

 most smoke. This is contrary to the the- 

 ories urged by our city smoke-consumer 

 cranks, who insist that half the smoke ia 

 caused by bad stokers. The Murphy fur- 

 naees make ninety per cent less smoke 

 than the hand-stoked ones. 



At one time they used natural gas as 

 fuel, because they have it on the place, 

 but the supply was too uncertain for their 

 enormous plant, but they still use it for 

 lighting and domestic purposes. 



Some years ago oil for greenhouse fuel 

 made quite a stir, and among others our 

 good friend C. W. Ward, of Queens, N. 

 Y., went into it enthusiastically, but if 

 I mistake not he has returned to coal. 

 At any rate, Mr. Burki, although he has 

 some fair oil Avells running constantly 

 on his place, won't use it as fuel. He 

 declares there is more money in selling 

 it to the Standard Oil people at $1.80 a 

 barrel than in burning it in his own fur- 

 naces. 



The Roses. 



The crops grown are roses, carnations, 

 mums, asparagus, orchids, and a few 

 catch crops and odds and ends. 



Mr. Burki propagates all of his roses 

 by grafting on the English Manetti. He 

 gets these now, pots them at once, and 

 grows them on until the middle of Jan- 

 uary, when grafting begins. The house 

 used for this purpose has recently been 

 emptied of chrysanthemums. On these 

 propagating benches there is provision 

 for bottom heat, also for boxing them 

 overhead with sashes. He is more suc- 

 cessful with grafted than own-root plants, 

 and only uses the latter when he has to 

 buy stock. Once or twice in the case of 

 own-root plants he has had trouble with 

 eel-worms. Lime scattered in the soil 

 allays this a little, but steaming the 



Iron-frame Carnation House of the Pittsburg Cut Flower Co. 



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