212 



All OMA TIC GREENHO USES. 



be opened when the sun shines and closed again at 

 night, or if the sun is obscured by clouds. Hun- 

 dreds of amateurs have built small greenhouses or 

 conservatories only to abandon them owing to the 

 difficulty of attending to them. The owner is called 

 away on business, and being detained, returns to 

 find the plants burned up by the sun or frozen stiff 

 by the cold. A greenhouse will not run itself and 

 to get a crop of lettuce, Hamburgs ot" roses; some 

 one must stay near the place day and night for six 

 months without even a half holiday. 



The objects sought in the new experiments were 

 exceedingly comprehensive. In the first place, it 

 was sought to make a wall for back and front of a 

 greenhouse that should be absolutely air-tight and, 

 as a result, frost-proof. This has been accom- 

 plished by a wholly new method of construction, and 

 it may be interesting to note that when the new 

 house was built at Stamford, and before any plants 

 were placed in it, an oil stove was started on the 

 floor of the house. After burning ten fu)urs the 

 house was not only up to 70 degrees Fahr. inside, 

 but on taking a lamp into the house it would not 

 burn. The oil stove had used up all the oxygen in 

 the air. In a few hours more the stove itself went 

 out for want of air, thus showing that the green- 

 house was practically air-tight. In constructing 

 the house attention was paid to convenience in 

 erecting the building and the walls were made in 

 sections, fastened together with screws. The en- 

 tire building, glass and all, was built under cover, 

 and then by the help of one man it was taken out 

 of doors and set up, in order for immediate use, 

 within two hours. Such a greenhouse can be 

 readily taken down in the spring, stored in a barn 

 and set up again in the fall, or it may be packed on 

 a wagon and carted off with the rest of the furni- 

 ture. It is thus possible to place a greenhouse on 

 hired land. Such a house is also very much 

 cheaper than an ordinary house. 



The next object sought was to get rid of coal and 

 to save all the trouble of an uncertain, irregular 

 source of heat. A coal fire is never for ten minutes 

 the same. It is at first growing hotter and hotter 

 and then steadily grows cooler till it goes out. A 

 high wind makes a coal fire burn fast. A heavy 

 fog and cloudy sky makes it burn slow. An oil 

 lamp burns with an absolutely unchanging flame as 

 long as the wick is fed with oil. It is the same 

 with gas. Oil and gas are therefore the best fuels 

 for a greenhouse, where the plants should be kept 

 in one uniform temperature from hoiu" to hour and 

 from week to week. Many attempts have been 

 made to burn oil in small conservatories, and almost 



always with complete failure. The heat is too lo- 

 cal. It does not readily distribute itself through 

 the building and the products of combustion are fa- 

 tal to plant life. In all greenhouses using coal the 

 boiler is always in a separate building, at a serious 

 loss of heat. All the heat of direct radiation from 

 the fire is lost and only the heat from the pipes is 

 available in the house. 



In Mr. Barnard's plant-house, oil or gas is burned 

 directly in the greenhouse under a hot-water boiler 

 and the boiler itself gives out a great deal of the 

 heat used to warm the building, while hot-water 

 pipes distribute the heat to other parts. At the 

 same time, all the prcxlucts of combustion are com- 

 pletely taken out of the building and the plants 

 flourish in as pure an atmosphere as can be found 

 in any greenhouse. The loss of space is very small, 

 as the boiler is placed under the table and only 

 about six square inches of table space is lost. The 

 economy of heat is, therefore, very great, arid as 

 the greenhouse is practically air-tight, a single 

 seven-foot gas burner will keep the building warm 

 in any winter weather. It is the same with oil. A 

 single wick of an Adams & Westlake oil stove will 

 keep the house warm in moderate weather, and two 

 wicks in any weather. Such results, it is believed, 

 have never been obtained before. The house is a 

 lean-to eighteen feet long, covered with six-foot 

 hot-bed sash, and stands in an open field on a bleak 

 hill-top ; and yet it has been operated by oil or gas 

 through the greater part of the past season. 



Naturally enough, in such a tight and warm house 

 the question of ventilation became of the utmost 

 importance. The sash were all screwed down tight, 

 and then in the upper part of one sash, near the 

 centre, a wholly new kind of ventilator was put in. 

 The object was to remove all the hot air from the 

 house and to keep out all back drafts or cold air 

 that might blow in at the ventilator. This has been 

 accomplished in a wholly new way, and in a manner 

 that seems destined to completely change our present 

 methods of running greenhouses. The ventilator 

 is fitted with valves, and by means of a thermostat 

 the ventilator is made automatic. When the heat 

 of the sun raises the temperature to 80 degrees (or 

 to any other degree decided upon) the ventilator 

 opens automatically and permits the hot air to es- 

 cape. Very soon the house cools down and drops 

 below 80 degrees, when the ventilator closes auto- 

 matically and remains closed until the temperature 

 rises to 80 degrees, when it re-opens. A cloud 

 passes over the sun and the ventilator closes. If 

 the day is cloudy it remains closed, but if the sun 

 comes out, it opens and remains open till the sun 



