12 
PARK AND CCMCTCRY. 
vantages over the span roof for plant growing. It 
is the style in general use for growing cut flowers. 
The Lean-to is a shed shaped structure erected 
against the south side of a building. Sometimes it 
is built against the east or west side, though this is 
not advisable, and when used for propagating it is 
generally attached to the north side. It cannot 
well exceed in length the width of the building to 
which it is attached, and can not be of great width 
as the roof will then become too flat and will be 
leaky and snow will lodge on it badly. It is the 
simplest and cheapest form of greenhouse, and, if 
it can be built large enough to supply all require- 
ments, is to be recommended. Other houses can 
not be readily added to it however, and, if there is 
a prospect of more room being needed in the future, 
the span roof house should be built. 
The construction of a lean-to house is nearly 
the same as that of one-half of a span roof and, 
therefore need not be described in detail. 
The even span house is the one in common use, 
and for the great majority of cases it is the best and 
cheapest style, everything considered. 
By building a gutter on one side, as shown at 
G. in Fig. 2, another house can be added at any 
time, the gutter supporting the roof of the second 
house, so that only one additional side wall is need- 
ed. A number of such houses may be built side by 
side with gutters between. This is call the “Ridge 
and Furrow” system, and is, perhaps the most com- 
pact and cheapest way of building a block of houses. 
Even span houses are built of all widths from 9 
or 10 feet to 25 feet wide or even wider. The nar- 
rower houses are built with a bench at each side 
on which the plants are set, and a walk in the mid- 
dle, lengthways. The wider houses are generally 
built with a narrow bench at each side, two walks 
and a wide middle bench as shown in Fig. 4. 
This may be considered in general, the best way 
to build. It certainly is the cheapest, as one can 
eet as much bench room in a 21 foot house, with 
only two side walls to build, as in two ii^ foot 
houses with three side walls. 
The side benches are generally 3^ or 4 feet 
wide. The former is best, as it is difficult to set the 
plants at the back of a 4 foot bench. The walks 
are built i yi to 
2^ feet in width, 
but it is not best 
to make them less 
than 2 feet, and 
where visitor sare 
to be admitted 
they should be 
2^ feet. The 
center bench is 
reached from each 
walk and may be 
double the width 
of the side bench- 
es, although 6^ feet is more convenient. The 
side benches should be about one inch further away 
from the wall than the plate, (the piece on which 
the ends of the sash bars rest when there is no gut- 
ter, ) and edge of the gutter are. This will allow 
the water which condenses on the glass inside the 
house or leaks through, to run down to the plate 
and gutter and drop behind the benches, instead 
of upon the plants. 
We then have two 3^ foot benches, two 234 
foot walks, one 6 ^ foot bench and an extra inch 
on each side, making in all 18 feet 8 inches which 
is the distance across inside the house from plate 
to gutter. The distance from inside to inside of 
sheathing will be about 16 to 18 inches more, 
varying according to the width of gutter and the 
varying dimensions of plate and gutter patterns 
of the different manufacturers. 
Having settled upon the width of the houses, 
the next question is the length. A long house is 
proportionately cheaper than a short one. They 
FIG. 4.— CROSS SECTION OF AN EVEN SPAN HOUSE, SHOWING 
ARRANGEMENT OF BENCHES. 
are built of any length up to 1 50 feet, or even 
larger. A house of excessive length requires more 
labor to operate it in proportion, than the same 
amount of space in shorter houses. It is also more 
FIG. 3. — LEAN-TO HOUSE. CROSS 
SECTION SHOWING ARRANGEMENT 
OF BENCHES. 
