THE OREGON SUNDAY JOUIUSfAlV TpORTIANI SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER t, '' t90l
CUDS
LAROLST
ioen up
Its Nearly Yie
227:500 Blooms
Value I3,00Q
to 3
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- t. . t ""t.' - , ' . a.l ' IMJUIW V S'Aji "Sc I ffi" 1 "4 l I -UM HtliJ IMf Vtf flit. ill ' i V Uirilltl I.!' IK' U i If i i
Iff I
'oJJsgest Greenhouse
OULD you imagine a scene such
as, tn us unique cnarm, no puei ur
artist has conceived?
Then think of 70,000 square feet of
; ispace covered xvith green bushes upon which
Vxtre blooming 45,000 large, satiny, red, fra
grant American Beauty roses.
One vast, glowing, odorous field of nod
I Bing red spots on green background. What a
ittarpet! And for such a space yo,ooa square
I $feetbig enough to contain the entire popu
ligation of c city of 20,000 inhabitants, every
ypne xvith feet on the surface I
;i ': Viewing $his; one is apt to become so lost
Vh t fin esthetic trance that he will forget the
I' great commercial significance of the scene.
J.-QVf this is of greatest importance.
: For fhis wonderful structure t recently
ltJ stt 11 f)ar Pt It tit lit tr tr ( t
greekhouse in the world, and it is devoted to
the culture of a single flower the American
1 Beauty rose.
', 1 As an engineering feat it will receive
I widespread attention. And as a commercial
" .proposition, how marvelous must be consid-
tred a plant yielding annually 227,500 blooms
? Worth in the retail market ,'113,000.
Th Florex popl ir It la tlmply becue of tb
great demand that exlsta for this moat beautiful of
rosea. Few people have had aucceaa In raliln; thla
flower. These folka have. Therefore, they find It prof
itable to throw their entire resources Into Its propa
gation. For years the American Beauty had lain around,
and no one had had much success with It A floral writer
expounded Its merits, and then thousands of growers
determined to solve Its mysteries.
Only within the last twelve years have, growers
learned how to keep rid of the dreaded "black spot,"
which had been the main obstacle to the propagation
of the American Beauty.
It Is a fungus growth, whloh causes the leaves to
become black and drop oft; then, gradually, the roots
are lost and the plant dies.
When It was discovered that the black spot was
caused by a check, by sudden changes In temperature,
or faulty food, or trifling things which would not
affect other flowers, a big step In advance was made.
Now, better boilers and steam apparatus and
knowledge of handling a greenhouse, combined with
cleanliness and use of preventive sprays, make It possible
to raise American Beauties as any other flower.
Even the leaves are dusted dally.
Formerly a dwarf rosebush, the American Beauty
in the largest greenhouse In the world reaches a
height of eight feet
T
REMENDOUS figures flit like metears across the
page upon which the story of this greenhouse is
written.
L! Th laying out the building the first requlre-
tnent after the cement foundation was to place 260
tO-lnch posts at intervals about the sides and over
the Interior expanse
, Then, upon theao posts there was Interwoven a
' truss structure of steel wires and bars, which formed
Ik network support for the roof.
V i Upon this framework was built a gable roof, con
i listing of light wooden bars, one and three-eighths
j Inches thick and twenty-four Inches apart These con-
gtltuted the sashes In which to insert the glass, which
1 one-eighth of an inch thick.
For, tho top and sides there were required 2000
7: .. boxes of glass, 16 by 24 Inches in size, and each box
V contained nineteen panes. In other words. 38,000 panes
W glass for the top and sides.
, Then there were the gable ends.
' These required 150 boxes of glass. 10 by 18 Inches
;n size, seventy-flve panes in a box.
r, . That is,, 11,250 panes of Klaus for the ends.
Uojpejfher, 49,250 lights of glass for a single green-
great number of plants of the amount of oxygen
which they require to thrive Just like crowding too
many human beings in a close room.
The plant, offices and accessory buildings cover
flfty-four acres of ground.
The 45,000 plants are expected, on an average, to
produce each a trifle over Ave blooms in a year,
making an estimated annual production of 227,600
blooms, or about 18,970 dozen.
These flower will be sold principally In Pittsburg,
Phlladi lphla, New York. Washington, Baltimore, Tren
ton, Buffalo and Chicago.
In all of these cities the price of roses at holiday
seasons Is very larpo. Perhaps an average price for
the year around Is $6 a dozen.
It is estimated that the value of the year's yield
of roses from this one greenhouse in the retail market
Is 1113,000.
Perhaps this Is too high, bat, at least. It Is In keep
ing with the popular traditions of holiday and Easter
prices for flowers. And these flowers are all queens
of their type.
One of the biggest rose growers In the country has
in his plant fourteen greenhouses. Yet combined they
contain 8000 less plants than this single greenhouse. .
The president of the company owning this great
greenhouse, David Fuerstenberg, a year or so ago con-
oiion or naving one giant greenhouse ln
number of smaller ones. The saving In
boilers, structural materials, etc., he real-
stpad of a
glass, coal.
, ized, would be great, and besides it would bo possible
to get more uniform results from growing all the
plants under identically the same conditions.
( The smaller houses, too, obstruct the light from
one another, and the leaklngs from the roofs keep the
ground In a quagmire condition.
The contractor whom Mr. Fuerstenberg approached'
declared no such thing could be done, but agreed to
try it at the company's risk. Folks wise in floricul
ture laughed, but after a quarter of the plant had been
completed and tested. It was declared to be a success.
The idea of supporting the great framework by a
wr of metal T1B was what made It stable.
Why devote this great greenhouse to the culture
or a single variety of rose the American Beauty?
HISTORIC REVOLTS OP
WOMEN
N
ART OBJECTS the DOTED COID
use.
The average two-story city house contains fifteen
IptodOWS, with two large panes of glass to a window.
In size, one of these is equal to at leaf t two of the
a panes In the North Wales greenhouse. So, say that It
' would take sixty panes of glass of these sizes for a
two-story city house.
The glats used In this one building, therefore,
rould make windows for 800 houses, accommodating
7 population of a little city of 4000 people.
: , It required live large freight cara to transport the
' glass to the greenhouse.
tf He who has the leisure and Inclination may figure
H Out for himself the number of wine glasses or salt
cellars that could bo made from this tremendous vol
vVme of glass.
STATISTICAL THRILLERS
.s On to other statistical thrillers.
" There were required for the slight wooden frame
Work the foundation Is of cement 76,000 feet of
.lumber.
- For the steam heating apparatus, which keeps the
greenhouse at a given temperature day or night, wlri
- iter or summer, irrespective of weather changes there
...Was needed 36,000 feet of Iron pipe.
To produce the (jteam there were installed three
'boilers of 850-horsypower each.
i me water into steam there will be
s of coal a season.
pipes are hung from the roof, not on
uaj, ana are mus out of the way of
is rraD fifteen fnll-
or locomotive, baa--
IVrdln
V
I
11 i i ma, I ,? T'iC w iff WjWWW'rjriHr "i7r5!?W!S
I ft r Hill Tin 1 " M iMIl mi! I fit lit It II k fti
Trinhfih
nr- 1lamM erfi
fiffa fro 7telB
O
must be used in spraying, and for
were installed 276 water rltrnt
ry large greenhouse has but fifteen.
nbuT wouiu, wnnoui reeling Incom-
Zjfam n capacious
iger trains, consisting
id three coaches, -
ty-elght. flower beds, placed end to end
J a wauc wo ana inree-quarters miles
of your primrose paths: what a path this
with its covering oi o.vuu roses:
age largo greenhouse Is 40 by 800 feet In
snarls reet nign in mo center, unit one
one side than the other. Its ground dl-
4J5 fet Jong.on- one side, 6,5 feet on
161) feet wide, (by taking advantage of
1
Cs possible to provide ror iv.uuu (nor
it feet hleh In the center. :
bads It lower would bare deprived the
VEER ideas of what constituto art are
revealed now and then in different parts
of the world. "In far northern Alaska it
. is the decoratinir of totem nolea. Tn Da
homey the filing of teeth and inlaying of black
stones in nature's white pearl is called artistic. In
Iceland it is the carving of the reindeer's bone.
But what must be thought of one of the most
advanced of civilized provinces when it devotes
itself almost exclusively to tho decorating of cala
bashes? Here is art of a most peculiar kind.
And the strangest part of it all is that these cala
bash artists have made the critics acknowledge
their genius have compelled rich visiters from
everywhere, to pay grand prices for their wares.
The ancient EtrtSstans devoted tho lives to
making pottery which tuey evidently discarded as
soon as made. Commercial instinct kas made the
calabash artists of Ajacclo, France, more prosperous.
A
JAOCIO is an island commune of over 20,000 popu
lation on the French coast, and almost Its entire
population has taken to the decoration of gourds
and calabashes as the Etruscans Specialised on
pottery. And they have made the business most proflt-
u vie.
Thanks to the rich soil and spTendlO
iiiere una oeen developed, on the island, a remaraaoie ainu
of gourd, found nowhere else. - -
But it is in tho shaping and decorating of the goUrds
that the Ajaccloites have made them remarkable.
Evolved ieor )Ji7?& &uraf3
Other people may try to do It, but their eiTorts cannot
pass as other than crude imitations. The natives alone
seem to have grasped the real art. Perhaps this Is be
cause they have such a pride In the growth of their
gourds.
Tourists to France now are told that their trip cannot
be complete unless they go to Ajacclo and purchase a
gourd souvenir and be sure the price will be high enough
to suit thi most extravagant tourist.
Orowii in many forms, the guurd takes almost any
shape, such as that of bottle, bell apple, pear, egg, onion,
lemon. The gourds are cultivated by men who know Just
how to train them for tho shapes and sizes required.
The farmer sells his product to the gourd artists. It
Is only after they have done with them that they become
Sources of great revenue.
In October the gourds attain their fullest growths In
the field. They are then cut from the stalks and laid
for periods of fourteen days to two months In the sun
or drying kiln until they become perfectly hard.
Then the soft external skin Is removed and The Inner
shell rubbed with olive oil to give it a fine brown color.
An opening, the else depending upon the use for
which the gourd Is desired. Is cut In one end, and the
seeds ani soft Interior removed. Then for the artistlo
work. -
This for the most part consists of wonderful carving
that furnishes proof of remarkable creative skill.
Most popular of the pictures carved on the gourds are
scenes connected with the life of NapoleonBonapsrte, and
this is quite natural, since the Little Corsican was born
, in Ajacclo. '
Yet the calabash artists are only .shown off at their
best when they get an order which gives them plenty of
time to display their creative skill, and holds out promise
of suitable reward.
For instance, when, having photographed the face of ,
a pretty woman on the gourd, the artist brings the picture
out with Ids engraving tools in beautiful relief, one sees
- sr Tal wertr -of rr 7w!-irr'. .
The smaller the gourd, the greater the prloa taken In
carving it. , ,
In suc.i a small thing as a smelling gourd two 'whole
days were consumed,
OT without precedent In history stands the re
cent revolt of the women suffragists in Lon
don, when they sought to force their cause upon
the Palace of Westminster. There have been
many Joan of Arcs.
It will be remembered how the women of the Fau
bourg St Antolne prepared tfie great French Revo
lution. Dickens has told the story vividly in the early
chapters of "A Tale of Two Cities." Women were
present after the revolution had broken out at the
taking of the Bastile, and on October 6, 1789, the Paris
woman had a field day all her own.
Bread was scaroe, children were starving, and out
into the streets went the women, eager to loot bakers'
shops and aristocrats' houses.
The crowd of women numbered nearly 10,000, and
Carlyle describes them as "ludlcro-ternflo and most
unmanageable," a forcible description which might per
haps be applied to the modern suffragists.
But the French Revolution woman was not content
with merely fighting with her hands, and umbr
and hat Dins were not available, so the armorseUr the
Hotel d Ville was broken Into, and away went the
feminine army to Versailles armed with pikes, swords
and muskets, and preceded by drums and two cannons,
for which, however, they had no ammunition.
During the Reign of Terror the women revolution
ists were well to the front, and one again remembers
Dickens and his picture of the knitting cohort that
followed the guillotine, the knife of which was fated
to cut off the heads of women as well as men worn
en's rights, indeed, with a vengeance.
In 1871 Paris was again in Insurrection, and the
scenes that took place In her streets recalled the events
that happened eighty years before. The commune had
been declared, and the French capital was in the hands
of revolutionists, among whom were many women, fa
mous among them Louise Michel, the "Red Virgin."
- In Russia, the woman in revolt is the soul of the
revolution. Death and torture havs no terrors for
her, and she Is as ruthless as she Is brave.
A woman, Vera Sassulltch, practically began the
campaign of assassination. A woman directed the
killing of the Czar Alexander the Good. Women have '
been trampled upon, whipped, executed.
LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT
A QUIET TOWN
LONDON after midnight is almost as quiet as a
country village and an odd contrast to Paris,
across the channel, which Is "wide open" all night
.Writes a tourist:
"After some years' absence from London I returned
to And it the quietest, dullest, most early to bed city in
the world. 1 have frequently strolled recently about the
Btreets in the West End from dinner-time till the early
hours,, and 1 have often enjoyed a quiet solitude a coun
try lane might envy. Saturday night, be it added, is an
exception, and o,n a fine Sunday evening the streets are
crowded until 11 or so by weary and rather bored-looking
strollers. - .......
"The only clubs that are not deserted at midnight are
actors' clubs like the Oarrick and the Oreen Boom, and
Bohemian resorts like the Savage and the JbBgnirio.
And even they are emptier than they used to Bsjand
are dnnnrted hours earlier than they were a generaT
ago. The race of men who sat up talking night afte
niirht nnfii l nr 1 has antlrolv disaDDeared.
"Twelve-thirty sees the close of the restaurants, and
for a few minutes another little stream of cabs and car
riages. There is a rush for the last omnibus. And then
thfc city Js-TeaUy aalaec-.. . , - . . ., .,
"At 1 o'clock the West End Is ft desert. At a time
when Paris is wide awake, when the cafes are crowded
and the central stret.acked. London Is tucked up and
fast asleen."
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'. -K.