PROPAGATING HOUSE. 41 



desirable to produce a large number of vines, and for 

 several years in succession. The size of the house will 

 depond entirely upon the number of plants to be grown. 

 If only a few thousand are to be produced, then only a 

 small structure will be required; for the best vines, or 

 the best plants of any kind, are not always produced in 

 the most expensive houses. Many a careful propagator 

 annually produces his few thousands of superior plants 

 with only a small lean-to house, heated with a common 

 brick furnace and flue, and these, perhaps, cf his own 

 make. And while this same propagator might tell you 

 that he would prefer, as a matter of convenience, a prop- 

 agating house with all the modern improvements, still 

 he would scarcely admit that the plants produced in his 

 email, cheap way, were any more liable to disease, or in 

 any way inferior to those grown in the most elegant and 

 expensive house. 



Fig. 12 gives an interior perspective view of a sec- 

 tion of a first-class propagating house. It may be made 

 of almost any length or width that is desired, but 

 eighteen to twenty-five feet is the usual width for a 

 span roof. 



The sides of the house may be of brick or stone, or 

 of two thicknesses of plank, one nailed on each side of 

 good strong posts set firmly in the ground, and the space 

 between filled with tan-bark or sawdust. The common 

 cement and gravel wall, such as is used in some parts of 

 the Country, will answer the purpose as well as any 

 other, and in many places would be most economical. 

 The wall should be low, seldom above two and a half 

 feet, on the top of which put a two-foot sash, which will 

 make the eaves of the house four and one-half feet from 

 the ground. Bank up the wall on the outside, and cover 

 the embankment with sods. The glass should be of the 

 best quality of plate or sheet. This is preferable to 

 cheaper kinds. Embed with putty and fasten with gla- 



