BUILDINGS FOR HORTICULTURAL PURPOSES. 



115 



tlie deptli of the tank ; many, however, prefer 

 for pits, dung heat ; in this case, tlie wall of 

 the pit must be perforated with holes, or ra- 

 ther must be built with holes, leading to a 

 hollow chamber, over which the bed is formed, 

 and outside the wall must be a second wall, 

 and a trench between them (Fig. 30,) or there 

 are others who have archways leading to the 

 chamber, and thrust the dung into it, raking 



it out and putttng a hot supply whenever the 

 other gets too cold, so as to allow the heat of 

 the bed to decline too much ; many, however, 

 will do more with a common hot-bed and 

 garden frame, than others can do with all the 

 .Expensive contrivances of modern buildings, 

 and this may be called the most unpretending 

 and useful of all garden constructions. AVe 

 believe we have gone through all the abso- 

 lutely necessary buildings for a garden, for 

 one or other of these may be used for peach, 

 cherry, or fig houses, forcing house, or by 

 whatever other name they may be called. 

 The stove is fit for a pinery. The same con- 

 trivance in lower pits will do for succession 

 plants. The form of the green-house, with ap- 

 propriate means of heating, will do for grapes, 

 and if we make any other particular altera- 

 tion, it would be in favor of orchideous 



Fig. 31. 



plants, but even here, we should deviate but 

 little from the ordinary stove, except by mak- 

 ing shelves and places whereon to hang the 

 various contrivances to hold the plants, for 

 when they are in flower, the conservatory 

 should be their place, and when not in flower, 

 there need be no great pains taken to render 

 the house commodious for visitors, unless, 



indeed, there be what may be called a show 

 orchideous house, in which case the paths 

 may be wider, and an open tank of water, not 

 to be heated, except by the natural warmth 

 of the place. This house, however, might be 

 made a sort of stove conservatory, and if so, 

 there may be any fanciful flower adopted that 

 may suit the taste of the owner. We, however, 

 do not profess to find a hundred plans for 

 structures, on which no tM-o persons' tastes 

 would be indulged alike, and therefore leave 

 this part of the subject for others, for each 

 one will give a diff'crent opinion, and furnish 

 a diff"erent design. 



As a protection for plants on walls, without 

 heat, one of the most simple plans is to use 

 the lights of a common pit placed in a sloping 

 position (Fig. 31,) and for a great preserva- 

 tion against the filling frosts, a coping should 

 be always built on the wall. The lights may 

 be placed close together, side by side, to ex- 

 tend the range as far as may be desirable, and 

 the ends may be closed with mats. As a 

 protection for climbing jilants that are a lit- 

 tle tender, it is very efiicacious, for the coping 

 prevents the heavy rains from trickling down 

 the wall ; and there is nothing more fatal to 

 half-hardy plants that are nailed against a 

 wall, tlian wet in winter. The upper portion 

 of the glass rests under the coping, so that no 

 wet can get behind it. We have seen it re- 

 commended to place the entire fi-ame against 

 the wall, and the lights put on the frames. 

 Of course, in such case, the small front of the 

 frame is placed upwards. This is purely 

 theoretical ; no man could reduce it to 

 " practice without finding out that the wood 

 work could not be put close to the wall, 

 unless all the stems of the trees or plants 

 are nobbed into the wood work, nor would 

 the wood work of the back, which is to 

 be next the ground, lay even unless the 

 border were level (which is not so in one 

 of twenty places,) or as it were, propped 

 to a level ; again, the plan would be use- 

 less if the boder had any other plants on it ; 

 again, wooden frames for lights are rarely 

 more than six feet from back to front, so that 

 all above six feet high would be exposed. 

 The plan may do on paper, but not in prac- 

 tice. The lights of pits are, for the most 

 part, from seven to nine feet long ; and in all 

 gardens there should be as much uniformity 

 in the size of the lights as possible. All 



