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14 



The Florists' Review 



MAkcH 27. 1913, 



Tiiree Teams at Woric, one of them Plowing:, in a Greenhotue. 



FABMINQ UNDER Gl^ASS. 



As It Is Done in Iowa. 



The work conducted in a modern 

 greenhouse establishment is no longer 

 spoken of as gardening under glass; the 

 correct term is farming under glass. 

 The accompanying illustrations prove 

 it, especially the one in which a team 

 is shown plowing in a greenhouse, while 

 two other teams are hauling fertilizer. 

 Here are three teams in one house, and 

 in the center of it, at that, and the 

 operations are exactly farm operations, 

 nothing more and nothing less. 



The big greenhouse in which the 

 plowing is in progress is one of those 

 recently built by the J. W. Davis Co., 

 near Davenport, la. J. W. Davis, presi- 

 dent of the company, is one of the 

 Davis brothers who have built up large 

 and successful establishments at Morri- 

 son, 111., Aurora, 111., Streator, 111., and 

 at Davenport. Mr. Davis went east 

 at the time of the National Flower 

 Show at Boston and was a walking 

 interrogation point, for he then was 

 planning the Davenport establishment. 

 Few men ever have investigated the 

 subject more fully than did Mr. Davis 

 before deciding on the character of his 

 new establishment. He talked with 

 the men who believe that the best pol- 

 icy is to cover as large an area as pos- 

 sible for the money, and who are look- 

 ing for quick profits, and he talked 

 with the men who build for permanence. 

 In the end he concluded that he would 

 build the big houses that have become 

 common in the east, but which are not 

 generally built in the west. 



^he Davenport Plant. 



As H reSult twenty-six acres of land 

 were acquired five miles from Daven- 

 port, on the Iowa & Illinois railway. 

 The first work^was to get a sidetrack 

 put in, as being of prime importance 

 where so much building material had 

 to be handled. Work was commen6(|d 

 about June 15, 1911. The plant -m^ 

 consists of one propagating house 24x 

 260, three houses 43x600 .ind two houses 

 64y2x600. These are. the flat iron rafter 



houses of the Lord & Burnham Co., 

 built separately, with sufficient space 

 between so that no shade is cast, a 

 point Mr. Davis thinks is worth all it 

 costs. The side walls are seven feet 

 high, three feet being concrete. Of 

 these concrete walls there is a total of 

 7,000 lineal feet in the establishment, 

 from which one can form an estimate 

 of the size of the undertaking in the 

 matter of construction. On top of the 

 concrete wall a cast-iron sill is bolted 

 to carry the iron posts. There is a 

 continuous line of ventilation on each 

 side of the ridge, also on each side of 

 each house under the eave plate. Both 

 walls are of glass above the concrete 

 base. The houses run east and west, 

 with wide doors at each end, so that 

 teams can be driven in, for emptying 

 or filling the beds, or for plowing. 

 There are no benches. The crops are 

 grown in solid beds on the ground. The 



beds are eight inches deep and five 

 and one-half feet wide. 



The Heating Arrangements. , 



Across the center of the houses there 

 is a passagewa}"^ eight feet wide where 

 the steam main is carried, the pipe 

 being reduced as the flows for each 

 house are taken off. The flows are car- 

 ried overhead, on the purlin posts, with 

 the returns on the walls. The Simonds 

 vacuum system is used throughout and 

 during the winter now closing excel- 

 lent results have been secured, the 

 houses having been heated on about 

 one and one -half pounds of steam pres- 

 sure in the most severe weather this 

 winter. ' ,: 



There was no feature of the estab- 

 lishment to which Mr. Davis paid closer 

 attention than the service building; it 

 is a model of substantial construction, 

 convenience and thorough equipment. 

 It is absolutely fireproof. The building 

 is 50x140 feet, and with its tall brick 

 chimney it gives the appearance, not 

 of a greenhouse boiler-shed of the old 

 days, but of a modern power plant. It 

 is divided into two sections by a wall. 

 On one side are six Kewanee tubular 

 boilers, each of 150 horse-power, mak- 

 ing 900 horse-power all told. On the 

 other side of the wall are the vacuum 

 and water pumps, air compressor, dy- 

 namo and other mechanical accessories. 

 Beyond these is the packing room. The 

 exhaust steam ordinarily is sufficient 

 for heating the houses. Water is sup- 

 plied from a deep well, being forced out 

 by compressed air into a large cistern, 

 from which it is pumped direct to the 

 mains, under 100-pound pressure. 



The Crops. 



So important an industry was this 

 that the railroad company established 

 a station at the greenhouse plant; you 

 will find it on the time tables as Davis 

 Gardens, and the local passenger and 

 express cars stop at the station shown 

 in one of the accompanying illustra- 

 tions. 



Mr. Davis built liis plant not alone 

 with the idea of permanence but with 

 the object in view of having houses 



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Davit Garden^ Station and the Greenhouse* Beside the Track. 



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