22 



The Florists' Review 



May 15, 1913. 



Increasing Width, Decreasing Pitch. 



As stated, though, this is a matter 

 for discussion and if it can be shown 

 that some other pitch offers greater 

 advantage, I am heartily in favor of 

 adopting such pitch as the standard. 

 There can te no great difference and 

 surely some one degree should be 

 adopted as regular. 



After the 21-foot house the next 

 width used to any great extent is 

 twenty-five feet, center to center of 

 posts, and here the roof pitch changes 

 from 32 to 30 degrees. As the houses 

 become wider the pitch decreases, 

 partly on account of the appearance 

 of the houses and partly from a con- 

 struction standpoint. As the span be- 

 coknes larger the need for a steep 

 pitch is less, for various reasons. The 

 volume of air is suflBcient without 

 steep pitch, the wind and snow pres- 

 sure is lessened and there is a saving 

 in materials. ' In houses twenty-one 

 feet wide and less, the 32 degree roof 

 pr^sents a fairly steep slope to the 

 wind, but, on account of the smallnesS 

 of the house and its rigidity, this is 

 of no serious consequence. The steep 

 pitch causes snow and ice to disappear 

 more quickly, gives a greater volume 

 of air inside the house, and to some 

 extent is a help in the ventilation and 

 in the control of temperature; it also 



fives more head room, tends to stif- 

 en the sashbars, etc. 

 The 30 degree pitch can be used for 

 houses up to thirty-one feet wide. Of 

 course, you understand this matter of 

 pitch has only to do with houses that 

 are even-span. Any unevenness of the 

 span of the roof will make a change 

 in the pitch. One notable exception 

 is the so-called 27-foot house, using 16- 

 foot bars on the north and 14-foot bars 

 on the south. With this type of house, 

 which, by the way, is one that is largely 

 used, the pitch on the north is 26 de- 

 grees and on the south it is 30 de- 

 grees. 



Advantages of Lower Pitch. 



For a long time the argument was 

 advanced that the 32 degree pitch ad- 

 mitted the rays of the sun in a more 

 direct manner during the greater part 

 of the winter than a lower pitch, and 

 that for this reason it was better. A 

 series of experiments conducted by the 

 Department of Agriculture proved this 

 to be nearly correct, but when the nu- 

 merous other advantages in favor of 

 the 28 and 30 degree pitch were 

 weighed against this fact, the differ- 

 ence was by all odds in favor of a 

 lower pitch. On the wider houses the 

 lower pitch saves material, gives ad- 



ditional growing space and relieves the 

 roof of a great part of the wind and 

 snow pressure; the house also makes 

 a better appearance and is easier ^o 

 erect and keep in repair. [Fig, IV 

 shows four roof pitches.] 



For houses thirty-four feet wide and 

 up to forty feet, a pitch of 28 degrees 

 gives best results and should be made 

 standard. 



For houses over forty feet in width 

 and up to seventy-two feet, the use of 

 the 26 degree pitch, which is about six 

 inches of rise on the roof per foot of 

 width of house, seems correct. In my 

 opinion, houses up to seventy-two feet 

 should have the 26 degree pitch. Widths 

 greater than this could hardly be made 

 standard at this time, on account of 

 the wide difference in the type of 

 construction materials used by the va- 

 rious manufacturers and the variance 



Fig. IV. Showing Four Degrees of Pitch. 



of greenhouse engineering practice with 

 respect to these, I might say, extreme 

 and special widths of houses. 



Standard Widths for Houses. 



The question of the pitch of the 

 roof is not as important as that of the 

 width of the house. It will be com- 

 paratively easy to settle on the stand- 

 ard pitch of roof for various sizes 

 of houses, but there is sure to be con- 

 siderable argument when it comes to 

 deciding on standard widths. There 

 are several reasons for this. The many 

 different types of greenhouses manu- 

 factured by various firms, and the 

 working of materials for these various 

 types, all have much to do with de- 

 ciding on the width of a greenhouse. 

 The location of the ground on which 

 the greenhouse is to be built, and the 

 size of the site will also have some- 

 thing to do with the width of the 

 house. The class of stock to be grown, 

 which makes various widths of benches 

 necessary, will directly affect the 

 width of the house in an effort to get 

 an economical bench arrangement. 



It is admitted there must be excep- 



tions to any standard one may set up, 

 whether this standard applies to green- 

 house work or to any other line of 

 industry. After going into this mat- 

 ter carefully, after several years of 

 experience in the manufacture of green- 

 houses, and after visiting and inspect- 

 ing a large number of houses and 

 ranges of houses, I am firmly con- 

 vinced that it is possible to adopt 

 standard widths and make a success of 

 the plan. 



A FIELD OF PUKITY FREESLA.S. 



The accompanying illustrations give 

 a partial view of the field of Purity 

 freesias grown by Mrs. Jas. H. Bays in 

 Ventura county, California. The stock 

 from which the field was planted was 

 obtained from Eudolph Fischer, the in- 

 troducer of the Purity freesia, when he 

 first offered his stock to the trade. 



The locality in which these freesias 

 are growing was not affected by the 

 recent freeze, which was so disastrous 

 to many sections of California. Oranges, 

 lemons and other citrus fruits, and even 

 the tender poinsettias, were not frosted 

 on the ranch where these freesias are 

 growing. On account of the careful 

 cultivation and the plentiful supply of 

 water, together with the uniformity of 

 the rows of selected seed stock, the 

 field for some weeks presented an ap- 

 pearance ©f striking beauty, affording 

 pleasure to all observers. 



AMERICAN ROSE SOCIETY. 



Meeting of Executive Committee. 



The elegance and brilliancy of the 

 International Flower Show has left a 

 mark behind it, having awakened a pop- 

 ular feeling 6f appreciation. Said one 

 man from Westchester county, "I 

 never saw anything like this, but if 

 you dropped the roses out it would 

 look like a pond with a hole in the 

 bottom," an expression which, if not 

 elegant, was certainly suggestive. The 

 roses displayed were without doubt 

 the most perfect specimens of green- 

 house culture, and the plant section in 

 pots and tubs was unrivaled. The num- 

 ber of entries and the quantity en 

 masse have never been equaled in the 

 history of the American Rose Society, 

 and this display came from members of 

 this society. The prizes awarded went 

 to thirty-five persons. The total value 

 of prizes exceeded $2,700. 



The executive committee will meet 

 in New York on Friday, May 16, at 

 Vice-President Traendly's office. The 

 Rose Society might become a powerful 

 organization for pushing rose culture 



Field of Freeiia Purity on the Farm of Mrs. James H. Bays, Ventura, Cal. 



