THE VINERY AT CLINTON POINT. 



179 



far surpasses all the curved roofed vineries 

 that we have seen there, and was designed 

 by Mr. Van Rensselaer after a thorough 

 inspection of the best vineries in the coun- 

 try. 



The house is built entirely of wood ; and 

 while it has an exceedingly light and pleas- 

 ing effect, is at the same time very strong 

 and durable. The view of the interior, 

 given in the frontispiece, (in which we have 

 omitted a large portion of the vines, to ex- 

 hibit the construction,) shows that the roof 

 is supported by three rows of light posts, 

 to which, in a very simple manner the ef- 

 fect of clustered columns is given. 



The house rests on loaist posts, which 

 are as durable as a stone wall, while they 

 offer no impediment to the free passage of 

 the roots of the vines through the border 

 on the outside or inside of the house. 



In the ventilation of this vinery, Mr. Van 

 Rensselaer has especially improved on 

 other structures of the same kind, which 

 we have seen elsewhere. The current of 

 air follows the same course as usual in 

 houses of this kind ; that is, it enters at the 

 openings in the low wooden wall below 

 the sashes, (boards hung on hinges,) and 

 escapes at the movable sashes at the top 

 of the roof; a mode which passes a stream 

 of fresh air, entering at one's command, 

 over the whole growth of the vines, from 

 the floor to the topmost branch. 



These movable sashes are swung on 

 centre pivots ; a mode allowing them to be 

 more easily opened and shut than sliding 

 sashes. Usually, sashes of this kind are 

 opened and shut by means of cords, which, 

 owing to the expansion and contraction of 

 the material, effected by the atmosphere, is 

 found a most imperfect mode. 



Mr. Van Rensselaer has ingeniously 

 obviated this difficulty, by employing a 

 forked iron rod, (fig. 80) a, for opening and 



Fig. 80. 



closing the sashes. This rod is about half 

 an inch in diameter, plays, perpendicularly, 

 up and down, through an iron socket, b, in 

 the top rail of the trellis in the middle of 

 the house. There is a thumb screw in this 

 socket, which presses against the rod and 

 fixes it at any desired height. Each branch 

 of this ventilating-rod, where it is divided 

 at the top, is only about a fourth of an inch 

 in diameter; so that the fork is so elastic 

 as to give it sufficient play to allow the 

 sashes to rise and fall easily and freely, 

 while, by means of the thumb screw, they 

 can be held firmly in any position. 



We have omitted to say that this is a 

 " co/d vinery ;" that is, one in which no 

 fire heat is employed, — a species of struc- 

 ture every day coming into greater favor 

 in this part of the country. To grow the 

 foreign grape in the highest perfection, it 

 is only necessary to have the temperature 

 of the house at that command which the 

 full sunshine, and the admission or exclu- 

 sion of the outer air, gives, without resort- 

 ing to fire heat ; and so abundant and 

 powerful is the sunshine in this latitude 

 that the Muscat of Alexandria, which in 

 many seasons requires fire heat to mature 

 perfectly in Boston, ripens regularly and 

 fully on the Hudson in a cold-house. 



