HOUSES AND CONVENIENCKS. 33 



getting out of repair, and is as permanent as the house it- 

 self. It will be understood that this style of "building glass 

 houses, is simply a frame work covered with glass, with- 

 out any double sash, and consequently there is no use for 

 any additional portion of the rafter above the sash bars 

 (as is the case where the sashes are made to slide), which 

 is a decided improvement in appearance, and equally suit- 

 able. The house is heated by one of Hitchins' of New 

 York middle sized boilers, and there is a lineal measure of 

 340 feet of four inch pipe employed, giving a double row 

 of flow and return, beside the necessary appendages. One 

 row is fixed close along the front, and the other at a dis- 

 tance of seven feet nearer to the back, which leaves room 

 for a pathway, without any dip in the pipe, and there is 

 the additional advantage of having all the heat arising 

 from the front, and lower part of the house, thereby se- 

 curing as much as possible, an equal temperature over all 

 parts. There are two rows of vines* planted, one to the 

 back wall, and the other about a foot nearer to the middle 

 of the house than the front row of pipes, which makes a 

 distance of eighteen inches from the extreme front ; the 

 lower part of each of the roof vines is curved towards 

 the bottom of the rafters, and consequently project partly 

 over, but are some distance above the pipes, and to prevent 

 injury from the heat when the apparatus is at work, there 

 is affixed behind each, a short board, about ten inches 

 wide, which protects the stem most effectually. The ob- 

 ject of this arrangement was to insure warmth in front, 

 and more particulary the lower part, and at the same time 

 w^ith the vines planted inside. It is a plan which we have 

 not seen elsewhere adopted, and was conceived from a know- 

 ledge of its being somewhat in accordance with natural re- 

 quirements; so far it has fulfilled all that was predicted, and 

 what answers in our own practice, may be justifiably 

 2* 



