That 
Self-H eating 
Greenhouse 
37"xl? 
Italian Mirror in Antique Gold 
IRWIN POST 
INTERIOR DECORATIONS 
12 WEST 47th ST. 
New York 
The graceful line and rich texture 
of this chair in Chinese lacquer add 
a note of dignity and luxury to any 
environment. The decorative flow¬ 
ers and characters in shades of 
mulberry, brown and old blue are 
strongly con¬ 
trasted against 
a mellow yel¬ 
low ground. 
$55.00 
Established 1848 
F.KLEINBERGER 
GALLERIES inc. 
ANCIENT PAINTINGS 
ANNOUNCE 
their REMOVAL to 
725 FIFTH AVENUE 
Between 56th and 57th Streets 
NEW YORK CITY 
The New Galleries will 
open in November 1917 
with a 
LOAN EXHIBITION of 
ITALIAN OLD MASTERS 
the full gross receipts 
of which will go to the 
American War Relief 
ORNAMENTAL FIREPLACES 
We have an ex¬ 
tensive collection of 
fireplace reproduc¬ 
ing in Pompeian 
Stone classic exam¬ 
ples of old world 
design and offer 
every facility for 
the production of 
exclusive original 
specifications. When 
in town visit our 
warerooms. Our 
large illustrated 
catalogue of home 
and garden orna¬ 
ments sent free on 
request. 
<Iht 
ERKINS STUDIOS 
226 Lexington Avenue 
New York City 
W HAT a wondrous agent is 
Cause and Effect! If I hadn’t 
had two maples growing side 
by side on my garden site which re¬ 
quired taking out, there would have 
been no deep hole, eight feet square, 
to fill; and, without the hole I never 
would have filled it with fertilizer 
and built thereon a hotframe that 
carried us through the winter with 
fresh lettuce. And, if we had not 
tasted the delights of fresh lettuce 
(for nothing) all through the winter, 
we never would have thought of ex¬ 
panding the idea into a small green¬ 
house. 
Our hotframe had taught us that 
a greenhouse, utilizing the heat of 
fermentation of fresh manure, would 
handle successfully any vegetable 
that could stand an occasional touch 
of 30° Fahrenheit. Further, in the 
early spring months, such as March 
and April, many May flowers and 
vegetables could be started from 
seed, thus saving the expense of buy¬ 
ing potted plants. 
Plans and Materials 
So, when we and the children and 
the pups went over the matter in 
solemn council, we laid our plans as 
follows: Four logs, two nine feet, 
two fifteen feet, to be laid in a 
square, same being the trunks of our 
left-over forest trees saved from 
clearing the land. Said four logs to 
abut against four pine corner posts, 
to which were to be nailed the top 
boards, bringing the walls of the 
greenhouse up to two feet high. 
Earth and sod to be banked up 
against the logs outside, concealing 
them from view, and making a pretty 
green rise of grass, from the garden 
level up to the white eaves of the 
greenhouse. A heavy roof rafter of 
4"x4" pine to run lengthwise of the 
greenhouse, to which were to be 
hinged five 6"x3" hotframe sashes 
on a side, their lower ends resting on 
the top board of the greenhouse 
walls. Back end of greenhouse of 
tongue and grooved pine; front end 
in glass framing, with a glass door. 
And then the interior—ah, yes, the 
interior!—for here was to be our 
great invention ! Around three sides, 
a cement block wall, two courses 
high, set three feet in from the logs; 
with a floor and a cement tank in 
the center— and —the space or bins 
in between the logs and the concrete 
walls to be filled with four or five 
loads of fresh manure, topped with 
loam, making a self-heating bed three 
feet wide by thirty-three feet long, 
counting the two sides and one end 
as a bed ! The concrete tank down 
the center of the greenhouse was not 
only for water plants, ferns and fish, 
but, being nine feet long by nine 
inches deep by sixteen inches wide, 
it would hold a lot of water, a splen¬ 
did conserver of heat, storing the 
sun’s heat in the day time and giv¬ 
ing it out again at night. As a mat¬ 
ter of fact, during the bitter winter 
that followed, that water was never 
even touched with ice, and, aside 
from pulling the shades and setting 
in a lantern on extra-cold nights, we 
gave the greenhouse no care that 
winter and yet brought an orange 
tree through without getting it frost 
bitten. 
Cost and Labor 
Before going into the enterprise we 
figured the costs as follows: The 
ten hotframe sashes at $30; the end 
frames at $8; the concrete blocks at 
$3; the top boards, rafter and end 
hoards at $6; and the labor on con¬ 
crete work at $6. 
Apart from the concrete work we 
elected to do all the rest, by way of 
pleasurable recreation, and the very 
next Saturday saw us about it. Two 
fifteen-foot planks; two nine-foot 
planks; a short session with the saw. 
These were then nailed to the four 
3"x3" pine posts, one of them at each 
end of the fifteen-foot boards; and, 
presently, four holes were dug and 
the posts let down to the right level, 
the nine-foot boards were nailed 
across their ends and the whole 
squared and leveled to a nicety be¬ 
fore filling in the post holes. 
This finished, we painted the frame 
a prime coat and stepped aside to 
let the laborer move in the logs and 
saw them to fit exactly between the 
posts, after which they were drilled 
with an auger bit and spikes driven 
through the post into the ends of the 
logs, thus holding them secure against 
moving. Then, many wheelbarrow 
loads of earth were hauled and 
banked against the outside of the 
logs, the slopes thus formed being 
covered with cut sod, tamped and 
garden-hosed. The work consumed a 
Saturday. We might add that the 
location chosen for the greenhouse 
was in one corner of the strawberry 
bed, with its length running north and 
south, the north end in matched 
boards and the south in glass fram¬ 
ing made for us at the mill. We 
chose the strawberry bed, partly be¬ 
cause any other part of the garden 
could not be spared without making 
our wheel-hoe' planting lines too 
short; partly because the strawberries 
were a permanent institution, not sub¬ 
ject to change; and partly because 
this particular spot was dry, sandy 
soil, where even strawberries did not 
thrive and were apt to be winter- 
killed, so we naturally took it as the 
poorest spot of soil that could be 
spared from the garden area. 
Completing the Frame 
A long yellow pine rafter, dressed 
on all four sides, 4"x4" by 16' long, 
now appeared on the scene. We set 
all sails for it on the next Saturday, 
and soon had it up in position set 
in the notches of a strip of 
pine upright nailed to the inside of 
the frame at the center of the north 
end and a 3"x3" post at the south 
end. The thin post was, of course, 
to be reinforced by the wooden back¬ 
ing at the north end, and the glass 
frame at the south went against the 
3" post, but for the present they held 
up the rafter alone. While the 
laborer was laying the inner concrete 
block walls, we cut and nailed up into 
place the triangular back wall, of 8" 
tongue-and-groove pine. This we re¬ 
inforced across the ends by strips of 
moulding nailed to each and all the 
hoards along their outer edge, thus 
tying them together. Then the first 
pair of hotframe sashes went up. All 
they needed was cutting the ends true 
and square and screwing on the pairs 
of galvanized iron hinges, which were 
forthwith screwed to their places on 
the pine roof rafter. 
The remaining pairs of hotframe 
sashes now went on until all were 
done, and the sun set on another 
Saturday. A sketch of the end sash 
frames and the glass door was then 
made and turned in to the mill for 
construction, and the next Saturday 
all our work was painted white in¬ 
side and out. 
Meanwhile load after load of fresh 
manure was being transferred to the 
bins or beds in between the concrete 
block walls and the outside logs—in 
all four wagonloads were used, and, 
(Continued on page 86) 
I (CHEERFUL, comfort- I 
1 able and “homey” are | 
I interiors furnished with 
| Cushioned with •»rich-toned ere- | 
| tonnes, it gives to large rooms an 1 
1 atmosphere of coziness and inti- i 
= macy; to small rooms, ease with- 1 
1 out heaviness or the effect of [ 
§ crowding. Many smart new de- I 
| signs: graceful, supremely com- | 
! fortable and built for service. 
| Imported Willow (used exclusive- i 
| ly in Minnet Furniture) increases 1 
§ steadily in value and will soon be I 
| unobtainable. Order holiday gifts | 
| now, so you won’t be disappointed, i 
| Booklet on request. 
§ DAY BED, pictured. 6'2" long. 30" wide; § 
| fitted with removable box spring covered I 
§ with plain rep. $59. Cretonne cover, = 
i $4.50 extra. § 
§ CH AIR, pictured. Stained. $16.50. Cush- 1 
| ion, $3 extra. 
| M1MMET <SL CO. | 
Lexington Avenue, between I 
40th and 41st Sts. 
NEW YORK CITY 
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HUM1RAD 
A Helpful Hand to Health 
A Humirad supplies indoors the 
humidity that nature provides for 
outdoor atmospheres when tem¬ 
peratures are raised, and banishes 
a dry heated indoor atmosphere 
with its attendant coterie of ills, 
and its prodigal waste of coal. 
Those who know from actual use 
what a Humirad ‘is, never know what 
a sore throat is. 
Used with a steam, vapor or hot- 
water heating system. 
Send for Circulars 
HUMIRAD COMPANY Inc. 
15 E. 40th Street, New York City 
H 
OUSE & GARDEN readers are 
looking for desirable properties. 
