Title: The American florist : a weekly journal for the trade
Identifier: americanfloristw3008amer (find matches)
Year: 1885 (1880s)
Authors: American Florists Company
Subjects: Floriculture; Florists
Publisher: Chicago : American Florist Company
Contributing Library: UMass Amherst Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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igoS. The American Florist. 1173
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OPENING DAY OF THE WARETOWN (PA.) ROD AND GUN CLUB AT JOHN ^VESTCOTT'S CLUBHOUSE. Left to Right, Top Row. —W- .T. Stewart, Col, Castle, J. S. May, Edwin Lonsdale, W. K. Harris, John Westcof,, Richard Lynex (aged 87). Front Row.—.John Burton. S. S. Pennock Daniel Uonoghue, .Joseph Lynch. .John Dnnhaui, Charles EimernjaD, A. C. Patterson. Second Row.—Wm. AVestcott, George A udetson, George Craig, George Bedford, Robert Craig, G. C. Watson, David Knst. Robert Craig, John N. May, Edwin Lonsdale, John Burton,and W. J. Stewart are S. A. I'\ Ex-Presidents. THE ALLIED TRADES Greenhouse Construction for Carnations. By Philip Ij. McKee, of the John C. Mon- inger Co., Chicago. It is oi; the utmost importance that every greenhouse be built so that the plants will get an abundance of light. Light is the first consideration in every case and too much emphasis cannot be laid on this point: Be absolutely sure before building that a nice, light house will result and there will be no trouble in growing high class stock. Probably nothing is so important, next to the amount of light, as the durabil- ity of materials used in constructing the house. There is absolutely no sense in building greenhouses that cost half of the profits to keep in repair. Get good, durable materials when building, but at the same time do not put all the money into one small house. In other words, do not put up houses that are so ex- pensive that 10 years' profits will not pay for them. With these two important questions settled, the next thing that confronts everybody is the cost of the materials needed for the house. Some of the un- wise fellows believe in getting any old thing from a planing mill; pine, hemlock or whatever they can get for the least money. They build houses any style and some of them have fine results with the first year's crop but it is poor busi- ness at the end of five years when the houses must be rebuilt or torn down. The five years' profits are gone and nothing to show for it. The fellow who goes at the thing this way is a failure in the florist business before he starts and, if by good luck he does hold out, he makes but a very small profit and works hard to get it. This is the man who wants to "build cheap." The man who goes to the other extreme is just about as foolish for, although he grows good stock and makes good money, the inter- est on his investment eats up all he makes. THE CYPRESS GREENHOUSE. The florist with a keen sense for bus- iness will think carefully before build- ing his greenhouse and put up struc- tures that are not too cheap or too ex- pensive. There is always a happy med- ium and we believe that in greenhouse construction this medium is the cypress house. Be it understood here, however, that we are talking to the commercial florist or the florist who is growing plants and flowers for the money there is in it and not for pleasure. It is un- necessary in this article to go into de- tails regarding the advantages of the cypress greenhouse but her? are two things to think over: If by using any old lumber, second hand or what not, a house is built that Avill last eight years for ?600, thereby saving .$200 on the cost of a house that would last 25-30 years; how much is saved in the end? These houses would be torn down and rebuilt three times at a cost of 31,800, and the grower would be out $1,000, to say nothing of the difference in the profits, the time, the worry, and the hard work. On the other hand if this up-to-date cypress house can be bought for $S00, or two of them for ?1,600, why put up just one house of a more ex- pensive construction that at the outside will last only about 10 years longer than the cypress house? As before stated, the first thing is plenty of light, the next, durability of materials and then, the cost of the house. To help solve these very important ques- tions we have asked some of the best known carnation growers to give us their idea of how a house should be built to grow the best carnations. We have also asked for opinions on houses for other purposes but this will be left for an- other time. A sheet of questions cover- ing every feature of importance was sent to each of these growers and when these sheets were returned they were carefully gone over and compared with one another. Wherever opinions differed we supplied the correct data and the fol- lowing is the carnation house in out- line. In our opinion the houses should be built along the lines of the up-to-date cypress construction or the semi-iron con- struction.

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