i 4 THE BOOK OF THE PEACH. 



the length being anything between thirty and two 

 hundred feet, according to circumstances. A house 

 of these dimensions will afford a roof angle of about 

 thirty-five degrees to the sun, and give a length of 

 rafter of nearly twenty feet. Such a house affords 

 ample scope to the trees to extend sufficient growth 

 to maintain them in a vigorous, healthy condition. 

 Instead of constructing the peach-house of sashes 

 resting on heavy rafters, light rafters one and a 

 half inch by three inches should be employed, 

 these, in the case of span-roofed houses from six- 

 teen to twenty-four feet wide, having rafters from 

 ten to fourteen feet long, being strengthened by 

 and nailed to purlines amid rafters and supported 

 vertically by lengths of gas tubing one and a half 

 inch in diameter (outside measurement), resting 

 on brick or cement piers at intervals of ten feet, 

 and having a Y-shaped piece, quarter inch by one 

 inch, of iron inserted in the top to grip the purlines, 

 which should be two and a half inches by three and 

 a half inches, and bevelled to admit of the rafters 

 resting properly thereon when nailed to them. 

 Other items of wood necessary in the construction 

 of a house of this description are as follow : Wall 

 and end plates, four inches by five inches ; end- 

 rafters, three inches by four inches. The rafters 

 should be secured to the wall plates bottom and top. 

 A piece of wood, two inches by three inches, bevelled 



