THIS RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1091 * 
1911. 
A PRACTICAL FARM GREENHOUSE. 
Cost and Materials. 
I built the greenhouse shown at Fig. 439 myself, 
and installed the heating system, without the aid of 
carpenter or plumber, though I do not claim to be 
much of a carpenter. Any farmer who knows how 
to use the square and saw can build a greenhouse. 
My house is 20x 100 feet and is what is known as 
a three-quarter span house, with the long slope 
freing the southeast. It is built of cypress lumber, 
which was cut at a local sawmill in this county. 
This is much the best material for greenhouse con¬ 
struction, but. the native supply in this part of the 
country is about'exhausted. Next to cypress I would 
prefer yellow pine, free of sap wood. For the walls 
4x4-inch heart cypress posts were used, set five feet 
apart; those of the south or lower wall about three 
feet above ground, of the north wall about six feet. 
The center posts for the support of the ridge are 
19 feet apart, 11 feet above ground, and are of 
3x3-inch cypress. Similar but shorter posts were 
used for the support of the purlin and set the same 
distance apart. The plates were 2x6-inch, with the 
upper corner sloped off - so as to face three inches, 
beginning about ^-inch from lower edge of plate 
(see diagram). The tops of the posts were sawed 
off with a slope of about one inch to the outer edge, 
so as to give the plate a sufficient fall. 
The ridge plate and the purlin were 2x4, 
the former with a groove sawed in 
it 1J4 inches from top and nailed on 
top of the center posts. The purlin 
was placed about midway between plate 
and ridge for the support for the bars 
on the long slope of the house. No 
support is needed for the short bars. 
The bars were 1)^x3 inches and. I had 
a strip J/ 2 -inch square sawed out (with 
a small circular saw) of each side of 
the upper edge of the bar, leaving a 
tongue J/ 2 -inch wide in center to drive 
the points in. The lower ends of the 
bars were fitted so that the upper side 
of the tongue was even with the upper 
edge of the face cut on the plate, allow¬ 
ing the glass to butt against the plate. 
This will leave sufficient of the face 
exposed to hold the putty and can easily 
be made air and water tight. The upper 
ends of the bars arc fitted to rigid plate 
so as to admit of the glass being pushed 
into the groove sawed in the plate. 
For ventilators I used window sash, 
leaders being placed between the bars 
at proper distance and sash hinged to 
ridge plate. The glass was lapped and 
firmly secured by points made for the 
purpose. The walls were closed in by a 
double layer of boards with building 
paper between. The house is heated 
with hot water, the boiler being placed 
in a cellar below the level of the house. 
I use two flow pipes, one, a three-inch, 
is suspended on the center posts, and 
has seven two-inch returns. The other 
is a two-inch pipe, and is carried along 
the north wall and has two 2-inch re¬ 
turns. An expansion tank must be pro¬ 
vided at the highest point of the sys¬ 
tem. I use a 10-gallon barrel, connected with the 
tbree-inch flow with a one-inch pipe. At first I 
heated the house with an old discarded firebox steam 
boiler, but later purchased a new greenhouse boiler 
with a capacity of 7,500 square feet radiation. I do 
not know exactly what this house has cost me, but 
T think somewhere between $600 and $700, including 
the boiler, which cost $225. As I stated before, I 
built the house myself and the above estimate does 
not include any allowance for labor. I have sold 
mere than enough out of this house in a single season 
to pay for cost of construction. m. l. benson. 
Union Co., Ill. 
THE ROADSIDE TREE PROBLEM. 
The matter of planting trees along the roadside 
will probably be a debatable question until it becomes 
an established custom. No one now argues against 
the benefits of the public schools, the advantages of 
public libraries, or the blessings of rural free de¬ 
livery. Yet the beginning of these good things met 
with a violent opposition that now seems strange. 
The writer has several times read and heard that 
the total yearly sales of privet exceed that of any 
or all other trees and shrubs combined. If that is 
true, it means that people are more and more beauti¬ 
fying their surroundings. And as every sunset sees 
the world just a trifle better and just a trifle more 
beautiful than it was the day before, it is certainly 
safe to believe that the time is not far distant when 
almost every roadside will be a bower of green 
throughout the Summer. 
American travelers in France and Germany tell 
us that fruit trees are frequently planted along the 
highways in those countries, and express delight in 
having seen those thoroughfares. It is not believed 1 
that that practice would succeed well in this country. 
Since the Red Astrachans ripened and up to the 
present time travelers along a local road have helped 
themselves freely to the ripening apples. Stones 
were used in most instances to secure the fruit, 
and the trees are subject to more or less annual 
mutilation. Another objection against apple trees for 
roadside planting is that they are not high-headed 
enough to be out of the way of wagons, and most 
roads are not wide enough to permit much growth 
of the side limbs. Cherry tree branches, either in 
blossom or fruit, are carried away in armfuls, while 
their habit of sprouting makes the work of keeping 
the fence row clean bothersome. Peach trees would 
rarely reach maturity, the public breaking the limbs 
to get the fruit. In fact, the planting of any kind 
of fruit trees along the roadside simply invites pilfer¬ 
ing and consequent injury. The American chestnut, 
black walnut and shellbark are good tree's, usually tall 
and stately in their growth, but I know of no spray¬ 
ing compound that will enable them to resist the 
attacks of the American boy when the nuts ripen. 
Only last week I saw a boy break the top off a 
pretty roadside chestnut about 15 feet high to get 
half a dozen nuts, when all around him were large 
trees with limbs that nearly touched the earth. This 
too, in a mountainous country, 30 miles from a town 
large enough to be called a city. 
Where it will grow—and that means any soil that 
will produce good corn—the Catalpa speciosa is, in 
the opinion of the writer, an ideal tree for roadside 
planting. A mile of them in bloom is a feast of 
beauty far beyond my power to adequately describe. 
The illustration, Fig. 440, of Catalpas along a road¬ 
side in Ohio can only suggest their strikingly hand¬ 
some appearance when in bloom. A trolley runs 
a'ongside them, and the adjectives of the passengers 
repay the kindly owner a hundred times over for 
the slight loss of corn or potatoes they cause. The 
tiees pictured are 22 years old. The maples, the Red 
and Chestnut oaks, White ash, Yellow poplar, bass¬ 
wood, sycamore, White willow—all are good trees, 
and by no means exhaust the list. Among conifers 
there is none better than the White pine. 
A visit to the woods adjacent to the places where 
the trees are to be planted will prove of far more 
benefit in assisting one to decide what varieties to 
plant than any long-range advice. Then consult the 
forester of your State experiment station for details. 
America has the largest list of native trees of any 
country in the world. And don’t leave the world 
till you plant a few of them, at least. This generation 
will respect you and the next one will think of you 
as a mighty good fellow. S. H. madden. 
Bradford Co., Pa. 
WATERING AND FEEDING COLONY CHICKS. 
At the Cornell College of Agriculture a large out¬ 
side farm is devoted to raising brooder chicks. On 
the large range which the farm affords approximately 
4,000 chickens were reared last year in gasoline heated 
colony houses in flocks of 250 to 300'each. One person 
did practically all of the work except the hauling of 
the feed and water, which it was necessary to bring 
from a distance. The only extra help required was 
occasionally during the season when the chickens were 
very young, when it was necessary to have a little 
additional help to clean the houses once a week. Out 
of 2,380 leg-banded chickens from the experimental 
stock, there were hatched and reared to market age 
or maturity, 84 per cent., which speaks well for the 
method of brooding and system of feeding. # 
The picture, Fig. 441, shows a low-down wagon 
which was devised for carrying water, feed and milk 
to the chickens on the range. The barrel is fitted 
with large hose and molasses gate for filling the water 
pans without dipping it from the barrel. 
It is allowed to run into the barrel by 
gravity from an elevated tank. Two, 
years ago, when they were rearing the 
chickens on another farm, two persons 
loaded the wagon, drove to the field, 
took care of about 2.500 chickens—feed¬ 
ing, watering and giving milk—and re¬ 
turned to the plant, about three-quar¬ 
ters of a mile away, and did the work 
in less than an hour a day. In this 
illustration is shown the cornfield which 
furnishes one of the finest ranges for 
young chickens on account of the shade 
and the tender young weeds that start 
between cultivations, which furnishes 
excellent green food. The chickens are 
also well protected from the hawks and 
crows. 
THE FARM HARNESS. 
If any farmer will stand at a large 
milk receiving depot or other point 
where farmers’ teams assemble, he will 
probably be struck to note how few of 
the horses have clean, well-kept har¬ 
ness. The harness in many cases looks 
as if it had never been cleaned for 
months. Considering the rise in the 
prices of all good harness and the 
cheapness of good harness composition 
and oil, it is a good investment to buy 
a small stock of these preparations, and 
apply to the harness once a week. A 
single set of harness can be oiled over 
with a brush in half an hour; it is not 
necessary to open up all the buckles 
every time, as the oil can be well 
worked in with the brush. By doing 
this the harness is always in a soft 
pliable condition, and can be easily al¬ 
tered for different horses in a few 
minutes, instead of having to wrestle with dry, hard 
straps in buckles, and having the leather cracking in 
many places. By going over the harness every week 
small repairs can be detected and made before they 
go too far. I think that any man who uses a knife 
to make a hole in harness should be made to buy a 
new strap, or keep the leather punch handy. 
I have noticed in The R. N.-Y. a good deal about 
sore shoulders on horses, and I think that if every 
farmer or horsekeeper would buy 10 cents’ worth 
of sugar of lead and put it into a quart bottle of 
water, and have a sprinkler cork in it, and at the 
first signs of soreness wash the shoulders two or 
three times a day, they would soon cure sore shoul¬ 
ders, provided the collar fits well. Some horses have 
naturally soft shoulders, and in Summer always 
scald, but I have cured with above remedy when 
others failed. I have worked my horse all the last 
hot Summer in the harness shown in Fig. 437, and he 
has been on the cultivator all day and has kept cool. 
I have snap bits and rope reins, a wide canvas back¬ 
hand with snaps to catch on to the chains; have the 
backhand set well back, and the horse will never 
put his feet over chains in turning. If you have a 
double set like this it makes good plow harness and 
saves your horses. heather. 
Belgium, with 11,373 square miles, has 7.315.5G1 in¬ 
habitants. Poultry keeping supplies a large share of the 
food. 
A ROADSIDE ROW OF CATALPAS. Fig. 440. 
A WATER WAGON FOR COLONY CHICKS. Fig. 441. 
