FEBRUARY. 



55 



either upright sashes made to open for giving air, or louvre boarding 

 arranged to answer the like purpose. The roof-sashes should be 

 fixed; and to provide means for ventilating the top of the houses, 

 must not meet at the upper part by a foot ; above which a coping 

 should be fixed at a sufficient distance above the lights (about 1 foot), 

 the space being left open on each side to allow the admission of air, 

 the regulation of which must be effected by slides made to open and 



Ground level. 



Giound level. 



.f^ 



Ground level 



Ground level. 



Different ways of planting orchard-houses. The dotted lines show the 

 amount of ventilation, the roofs being fixed. 



shut at pleasure. Mr. Rivers, I believe, places his roof on a Yew, 

 or some other description of hedge, which affords a gradual admission 

 of air without creating drafts ; but a more secure and effectual plan 

 is the above. 



These houses are well adapted either for trained trees (in which 

 case a trellis wdll be necessary), or for standard and dwarf bushes, 

 which may either be planted out in a prepared border inside the 

 house, or fruited in pots or tubs. Peaches, Nectarines, Apricots, 

 Grapes, Figs, Plums, Cherries, and even the best kinds of Pears, may 

 be successfully grown in " orchard-houses." The dry atmosphere, and 

 freedom from sudden alternations of temperature, so fatal to fruit- 

 trees blooming in the open air, under the vicissitudes of a British 

 climate, are favourable conditions for obtaining a good set, while the 

 increase of temperature produced by solar heat during summer and 



