154 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



vented from spreading by horizontal ties fastened about midway 

 of their length. This length of rafter requires three lengths of 

 sashes, each one slightly overlapping the one below it. Ever}' 

 third upper sash on both sides is hinged at the top so as to be 

 opened for ventilation, and there are also ventilators in the sides, 

 which, however, are opened onl}' when the grapes are coloring. 

 The perpendicular sides are about two and a half feet high. The 

 ground in the liouse is a foot or a foot and a half below the 

 border, the soil having been thrown on the border. Telegraph 

 wires are stretched, about fifteen inches from the glass, to bolts 

 at top and bottom, by means of which they are tightened, and 

 they have also a support in the middle ; on these wires the vines 

 are trained. Perhaps a better plan would be, to carry the roof 

 only about half as high, on the curb-roof plan, having the upper 

 portion pitch just enough to shed water freely. This would make 

 the working of the upper portion of the house less difficult. 



A vote of thanks to Mr. Philbrick for his able and interesting 

 paper was unanimously passed. 



Discussion. 



E. W. Wood was first called on, and said that he had been 

 much interested in the account of the use of heat in frames. 

 Within the last few years a good deal has been done by procuring 

 the old heating apparatus used in railroad cars. This has, in con- 

 sequence of the change in the methods of heating, been sold for 

 eight or ten dollars cash, and has been purchased to a considerable 

 extent by the users of cold frames. Lettuce has, as the essayist 

 said, failed without bottom heat. The heated frames are most 

 useful for retarding plants. 



As to using the hot-bed sashes for grapes, Mr. Wood thought 

 it a question whether it would be more profitable than continuing 

 to use them for cucumbers or other vegetables. There is no fruit 

 which will flourish under maltreatment as well as the grape. 

 When the tops of Black Hamburg vines are destroyed the roots 

 are never killed. The vines under Mr. Philbrick's plan must be 

 bent down and covered with earth to protect them during the 

 winter ; this can easily be done for the first four years, but after 

 that it will be more difficult. The speaker has vines planted in 



