u 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 







DacaMBBB 29, 1910. 



in the afternoon. Some of the larger 

 gnawers now overcome this shade prob- 

 lem %{f^^milding ibngea of connected 

 houses t^Kast and west, to pesmit best 

 light to enter, and then run the beds, 

 aisles and piping in the opposite direc- 

 tion, across all houses, so as to have 

 rows run north and south inside a range 

 of east and west houses. It works quite 

 satisfactorily. Other growers build tke 

 east and w«st houses, but make tk0 

 trellis or arbors on which the vines ju» 

 trained at a less steep pitdt, JM» Umb mw 

 can peep over the rid||e Mki 4Mnt the 

 north slope of the treUi* «{ «!iA«s. This 

 is now the more caauoMl |Bethod. 



The uppermost jn^lem now with 

 large greenhoMW owners seems to be 

 how wide t# Jn^d the houses. In the 

 east the ifad^tnation is strongly toward 

 larger J^iNises, both for cut flowers and 

 vegttt^lea. In the west both cut flow- 

 er Mid vegetable growers are all pretty 

 0re\l satisfied with what is now called 

 a standard house, this style of connect- 

 ed houses being used almost entirely by 

 three or four of the largest establish- 

 ments in the world located near Chi- 

 cagfo. The fact that these large places 

 use this style of house seems to be suffi- 

 cient reason for all the smaller ones to 

 follow suit without further discussion. 



This house, so generally termed the 

 «tandard western house, is twenty-seven 

 feet wide. The roof is fourteen feet on 

 ■the south slope and sixteen feet on the 

 north, throwing the ridge a foot south 

 of the center and in line with the gut- 

 ter, so that the shadow of the ridge 

 falls on the same line as the shadow of 

 the gutter in the shorter days of winter. 

 When the. sun is several weeks higher 

 up, the shadow of the gutter falls in the 

 aisle just north of the gutter. There 

 are four 5-foot benches to a house. The 

 first one is against the north wall and 

 the fourth one eighteen inches f rOm the 

 south gutter posts, so that the same 



I have come to some eoaelasioiui tkat 

 may be of interest to otiMn. 



CoBsideriag tke d^Eeraat aUflMi •' 

 ea«t aad west house ia oeapanHn,' it 

 is interesting to note thmt the easfcerMr 

 f eeb shnwd ot the westent grp t rer be- 

 cause tlMgr build imt^gm konses and more 

 expulsive ^mna, but In is awe-stricken 

 to see ami vealum the immense areas 

 flS TMB si by tke weiatern groups of these 

 smdlar houses. Then, too, when the 

 easterner meets the westerner at the 

 flower shows, nothing is heard about 

 these larger, finer eastern houses grow- 

 ing better prize winners. Then, to com- 

 pare profits per equal areas, and this is 

 the most important point of all, the 

 westerners with their 27-foot houses 

 make as good a showing as any growers 

 in the country. Their idea is to cover 

 the largest possible area for the money. 

 As to expense of repair and upkeep, and 

 length of life, of the smaller houses, 

 these 27-foot houses are constructed 

 with iron posts, gutters and purlins, and 

 with purlins supported by trusses on the 

 newer houses, doing away with all pur- 

 lin posts. It is hard to see how any 

 house could be more lasting or easier to 

 repair or more conveniently planned for 

 benches, etc. 



The style of house used so commonly 

 around Boston, being long span to the 

 south and of good width, makes a fine 

 house, but has some faults. They are 

 not expensive houses, only that they 

 must be separated several feet, necessi- 

 tating waste of land, more expense to 

 heat and for walls, gutters or plates 

 and gutter posts than where connected 

 in one range. The south eave is too 

 low. The ridge, being high and near 

 the north wall, throws much shade 

 north, so that it is necessary to build 

 them separated. They have only one 

 advantage to make up for the several 

 disadvantages and somewhat higher 

 cost. This advantage is in having the 



Establishment of Adolph Malchow, Chicago. 



aisle answers for the north side of the 

 first bench in the next house. 



While I have several of these houses, 

 and like them, and believe that it is 

 always good policy to let well enough 

 alone, still I believe that the style of 

 houses will soon make a change. I do 

 not believe the extremely wide houses 

 will become generally popular, but I do 

 believe that the coming popular style 

 of greenhouse will be a wider one than 

 the standard 27-foot house. Having I 

 given this problem years of hard study, ' 



sunlight all come in the south slope of 

 the house. Any sunlight that comes 

 through the north slope of a roof over 

 the ridge goes through the glass at such 

 an angle that it loses much of its 

 strength and value. 



This same point is the first one of 

 only two that I hold against the. stand- 

 ard house. To get. that ridge south of 

 the center of, the house necessitates the 

 shortest span to the south; hardly 

 noticeable, to be sure, but nevertheless | 

 if more of the sunlight could come in at 



nearer a ri^ht angle by coming through 

 the south slope it would be better for 

 the erops. The second point I have 

 jiigaiaat this style of house is tb$t ihey 

 loBve €aAy vae purlin undbr each span of 

 rsofs. I consider a 16-foot span too 

 long tot osdyone imriin. In protected 

 sitnatioaB no fault can be found, but 

 where nrpBiad to severe storms the roof 

 waves too laach and causes more 

 .cracked glass and weakening of houses 

 than would be possible if two purlins 

 were used. 



Poehlmann Bros. Co. is now using in 

 its newest houses a truss supporting 

 two purlins to each slope and these, 

 with gable braces and higher gutters, 

 make wonc^erful houses, but it seems to 

 me the ba^s are hardly long enough to 

 use two purlins on, for two purlins will 

 hold 18-foot bars as solidly as anyone 

 could desirfe. 



Why not make a house thirty-three 

 and one-half feet wide and have an- 

 other bench and aisle to each house? 

 Make the roof nineteen or twenty feet 

 slope to the south and sixteen and one- 

 half or seventeen and one-half on the 

 north slope, and a low pitch roof to 

 throw the shadow about as it does in 

 the 27-foot house, but have considerable 

 more sunlight come in through the south 

 slope than through the north, using two 

 purlins to each slope supported by the 

 truss. 



The two-purlin truss idea is a good 

 one that has come to stay, but if we 

 make the houses wider to fit two purlins 

 we can get along with four-fifths the 

 number of gutter and gutter post runs, 

 also four-fifths the number of ridges 

 and ventilating machines, etc. For in- 

 stance, where we have twenty houses 

 now we would have only sixteen, and 

 the same area of glass, but four runs of 

 ridges and gutters less to build and pay 

 for and four double runs of ventilating 

 machinery less. And why not better 

 houses? Would not the opinions of 

 others be interesting on this subject? 



W. B. Davis. 



The Review will be glad to hear from 

 other growers who have ideas on how 

 the present type of greenhouses can be 

 improved upon. 



MALCHOW'S PBOGB^SS. 



One of the evidences of the steady 

 expansion of the .florists' business is 

 to be found in the progress of Adolph 

 Malchow. His place of business is at 

 3743 North Clark street, Chicago, so 

 far out that only a few years ago no 

 retail trade could be done there, and 

 the houses were devoted to growing 

 plants sold elsewhere. Mr. Malchow 

 leased the establishment from its own- 

 er, P. N. Neglick, in 1906, shortly 

 erected the store building and now 

 does a nice retail trade, for the city 

 has built up all around him and he 

 can sell many times the quantity of 

 stock he can grow in the three houses. 

 In fact, the only cut flowers are a 

 bench of carnations. Enchantress and 

 White Enchantress, the rest of the 

 space being used for pot plants, 

 among which was a nice lot of cyclamens 

 for Christmas. Mr. Malchow has now 

 bought the property, including land and 

 greenhouses. There are three houses, 

 one on each side of the store and one 

 in the rear, with a fourth house built 

 on top of the boiler-shed, which proves 

 a quite handy addition to the 

 facilities. 



