CULTIVATION OF THE GRAPE UNDER GLASS. 141 



€ight€en inches below the plate. There should he a ventilator 

 in each space- between the rafters. The easiest arrangement for 

 opening and closing them, is to swing them on a pivot, with a 

 curved iron rod running from the edge of each ventilator and* 

 fastened securely to a larger rod, which is run the whole length 

 of the house, and which is supported on brackets fastened in the 

 wall and standing out about three inches from the face of the 

 wall. This long rod is very readily and cheaply obtained by 

 using inch gas pipe. At one end of this long rod, and running 

 at right angles to it, is fastened a rod or bar to act as a lever in 

 taming the long rod on its axis. From the end of this lever 

 depends a handle, which is pierced at the lower extremity with 

 numerous holes. When it is desired to open the ventilators at 

 the top of the house, they are aU openened simultaneously and 

 to any desired height, by means of this handle, which acting 

 upon the lever turns the long rod, and this turning of the rod 

 pushes open the ventilators. These are kept open to any desired 

 degree by slipping the lower end of the handle on to a peg fixed 

 in the wall, which passes through any one of the several holes 

 with which the lower end is perforated. 



A good mode of building is to put up a frame, fill in between 

 the studs with brick laid in mortar, making a four inch wall, 

 and then plaster on the brick. All the interior of the house 

 should be made as smooth as possible, and the wood work well 

 painted, so that the house may be thorougly cleansed every year, 

 and leave no hiding place for insects. The roof should be fixed, 

 the astragals reaching from the plate to the ridge, and the 

 glass bedded in putty, with a lap of not more than one-eighth 

 down to one-sixteenth of an inch. If pieces of tin, four inches 

 wide, be first laid for the bottom course, and then the glass laid 

 on, lapping the eighth of an inch on the tin, it will be found a 

 saving of glass in frosty weather. The rafters should be two by 

 six inches, placed three feet ten inches apart, from centre to 

 centre, and a vine trained under each rafter. Across the upper 

 side of the rafters, and about midway of their length, should run 



