Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women - Wise Acres Yearbook (Ambler, PA)

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especially if they are cast iron, as you might have a break in a section at some time when it would seriously inconvenience you, which is what generally happens in the coldest weather. You can either run both boilers or else cut one off. Roses are mostly grown in solid beds. When you have beds, ‘the only way you can heat them is to put heating pipes on the side, which causes red spider. A number of commercial growers are swinging their heating pipes underneath, so that they are not so close to the roses. 9 You can force plants raised in benches very much faster than in solid beds. Beds can be built of concrete or boarding. Benches should be built of No. 2 cypress. Benches will cost one-third of what entire structure costs. In constructing concrete benches, make legs of concrete; look out that you have plenty of drainage and place for water to run out. In regard to ventilation, never run over fifty feet if possible (you might possibly go as high as seventy-five). It gives you a better control of your crop. Your sunshine, your heat, and your ventilation are what make your stock sell better. If you do not keep your greenhouses in good repair, you will have trouble with glass breaking or cracking and things will not grow well. There should be one-eighth inch of putty between the glass and bar. A second coat of paint should be given after the structure is erected before the glass is set. When the glass is in, give it a third coat, and then you have given all laps a second coat and your putty a coat, which seals it. Do this every two years and you will never have a house with slipping glass or broken glass from vibration. If you putty with carbolic acid or a tar base the bar deteriorates and you cannot paint over it. The temperatures of houses will run as high as .130 deg. in summer, so the putty must be made to withstand this, while in winter you must reckon with temperatures below zero. Side ventilators can run one hundred feet. Vegetable house ventilators may run one hundred fifty feet, but in houses where you have to be careful of your temperature, like cut-flower houses, do not go over fifty feet. Cast iron boilers are cheaper for little houses. They are cheaper to install and will run from six o’clock at night to six or seven in the morning, provided you get a boiler that has sufficient coal area. For one thousand to two thousand feet of radiation, put in a square boiler. You can put on coal enough to carry heat for thirteen hours with a square boiler, but you can not do that with a round one. It is better to put in steam boilers if you grow to a size where there would be a requirement for five cast iron boilers. Hot bed ashes are not used as much as they used to be. People are specializing on one thing; therefore, beds and frames are not needed to such a degree as in private lines. In a commercial place you can start a large amount of your spring or Easter stock in your frames, and then give them a place in your greenhouse or else harden them off in your cold frame. In private places most of the vegetables are grown in cold frames. Suppose you enter the commercial field and intend to retail 15

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PLAN FOR GROWTH On December seventh we had the pleasure of listening to an extremely interesting ta)k by Mr. Bates, of Lord Burnham Company, Philadelphia, on the construction of greenhouses. Mr. Bates drew attention to the fact in the beginning of his talk that a business career might depend on the first lavout of a greenhouse, commercial as well as private, which 'present two different problems, but the fundamentals are the same. Take a commercial project. You have limited means, are just starting out; in putting up a greenhouse, do it with the thought of an addition later on. It is cheaper to tear down, nine cases out of ten, than to fix up old houses. In laying out houses, lay out straight lines. In planning your greenhouse, think over what you want to grow, how much you want to grow, and design the whole layout along that line. A greenhouse roof carries 22 to 24 pounds to the square inch. Add to that your wind load, dead load and other stresses, sometimes causing it to rise as high as 150 pounds, there will be five, ten, fifteen or twenty times the amount it was intended to carry. In time of shortage of coal, look ahead and lay in coal. Greenhouses should be kept with heat in them in winter. They will depreciate at least five years in one winter under normal conditions if left without heat. During the war there were many small greenhouses wiped out of existence through lack of good business methods and not having foresight to lay in coal enough to carry them through. Others foresaw and ordered enough coal to last them during the shortage. These men made enormous amounts of money. Suppose you intended growing a general line of stock in a small, medium-sized city, retail trade, and you had a limited amount of money, and you wanted to take in a general line of business, you had to grow everything—heat with water. Never build less in width than a twenty-five foot house, four benches. Your benches and your heating will cost you the same for an eighteen foot house, approximately, as it will for a twenty-five foot house, and you have gained one bench. Your labor in the erection of a twenty-five foot house is very little over that for an eighteen foot house. Do not, by any means, consider anything less than an eighteen foot house unless it is a passage or lean-to. In designing a range of glass, when you can, and when everything is equal, have it fifteen degrees South. In designing service building, get cellar deep enough; go eight feet if you can ; never less than seven. Give plenty of room to take care of coal and boiler in cellar. You can run two hundred feet with a water main successfully, but not over. The shorter you have mains for water, the better success you will have. Devote one house to a certain kind of plant after you have commenced to enlarge the number of your greenhouses. Increase boiler space as you increase house space. After you have twenty thousand or twenty-five thousand feet of glass, you have to change water for steam. It is always a good policy to have two boilers. 14

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your own stock, it is nice to have a conservatory in connection with your own store. It will not take a large amount of money and will increase your sales. (A good size is seventeen by thirty-five or forty feet long.) At the close of Mr. Bates' talk an opportunity was given to ask the following questions: Question—What would be the cost of building a greenhouse 25x100? Answer—Keep to standard sizes; you can get your materials from ten to fifteen per cent, less than if you go into special sizes. I would say $1.12 a square foot of ground covered, taking in your service building, masonry work, heating, benches, etc., would be an average estimate. Distance of hauling and other items may vary this figure. Q.—Is it more expensive to build a private greenhouse than a commercial one? A.—Yes, because it costs just as much to get your men from the factory and materials as it does for a big one. Q.—Do you install oil burners very much? A.—No. They are not successful as yet. So far they have not saved a dollar and have not cost any more. Q.—Have you many orders for overhead irrigating in greenhouses? A.—Only in vegetable houses. Overhead system is not appropriate for cut flowers. The growers say if you can go over their houses once a week and water, that is all the personal attention they need to give the place. If you water by the Skinner System one plant is the same as another and you cannot keep track of their condition as well. Q.—Do you install sub-irrigation benches? A.—No. Q.—Do you install many steam boilers suitable to be used in connection with sterilization. A.—Fifteen pounds for sterilization. Q.—What would you suggest in the way of greenhouses to keep a small retail trade going? A.—Two twenty by fifty Ridge and Furrow and then buy your roses and carnations from a wholesale house and raise the rest of the stock yourself, such as greens, sweet peas, snap-dragons, violets, etc. Q.—Do you build more semi-iron or iron houses? A.—At the present time we are building more iron, as you can buy them as cheap as semi-iron frames. P. M. 16