THE FRUIT GROWER'S GUIDE. 



is a plain but useful structui'e, for its sides, ends, and doors (there should bo one at 

 each end in the centre) are all of boards, and its roof only of gla<s. This is the 

 original description of span-roofed orchard house, and will give fruit in as great abun- 

 dance as a house built ornamentally and at a great expense. 



A house combining lightness with strength, cheapness and appropriateness, is 

 desirable in private gardens. Such (Fig. Gl) may be 24 feet wide, 12 feet high in 

 the centre, and 5 feet 3 inches at the sides. Part of the sides (if) and ends are glass, 

 and on each side and at both ends is a wooden shutter 18 inches wide, the lower edge 

 18 inches from the ground, on hinges opening downwards the length and width of the 

 house, and below that glass to the ground. At each end, just under the ridge, openings 

 down to and the width of the doors fitted with sashes, provide all the top ventilation 







necessary, and these are to be open all the summer. The roof is formed of rafters. 



3 inches by 1^ inches, fixed 20 inches 

 apart from rebate to rebate, and are kept at 

 the proper distance and from sagging by a 

 purlin, which is supported on each side by 

 galvanised tubing (/), 1| inch in diameter, 

 let into the purlin and fixed in a stone slab 

 (//) or small square of brickwork and cement 



Fig. 61. LARGE SPAN-ROOFED OIICHABD HotrsE. 



at the ground. ]i,ach row 01 pillars is 6 



References :a, iron socket ; b, boards to the ground ; 



c. ventilating shutters ; d, glass 18 inches wide ; e, iron tie feet from the sides of the house. T iron IS 

 bars ; /, iron tube pillars ; <j, stone slab or brickwork. , . , , , , a, a. v 



lighter and better than the wood purlins, 



with a screw hole opposite each rafter, and a groove in the pillars clips the T iron bar 

 and is secured with a pin through the tube and T bar. The iron pillars and iron bars 

 (e) are placed to every sixth rafter, or about 10 feet asunder. With a pathway up 

 the centre and trees on each side this house forms a charming avenue, but side paths 

 are necessary for cultural purposes when the trees are in pots, then it is better to 

 arrange them in three lines down the centre, and in two rows on both sides. 



The essential difference between a fruit house on orthodox principles and an orchard 

 house is in the former being provided with top and bottom ventilation and the latter with 

 front or side only (except the hot-air openings at the apices of the ends). The side 

 ventilators answer admirably in the summer, but in the spring it is not desirable at 

 times to admit air by them, or only on the side against which a cold sharp wind is not 

 blowing ; and this even is so liable to reduce the temperature that Mr. Rivers has devised 



