Grapes. 



415 



them into the posts about one inch, and nailing all securely by using 

 twenty-penny nails. Then put a scantling lengthwise with the house 

 and parallel with the one on the inside of the tanks on the top of the 

 short pieces last mentioned, and near the posts supporting the plate 

 of the house to support the outside of the tank ; of course at the 

 same height from the ground. All this framework should be very 

 securely made, to prevent the tanks, when filled with water ant 

 covered with heavy sand, from settling, as they are sure to do if not 

 well done. The tanks are easily made by using pine plank, an inch 

 and a half thick, planed and matched at the planing-mill, cutting a 

 groove at each end and driving them in paint upon side pieces five 

 inches high. They may be three and a half feet wide, and should 

 extend on two sides and one end of the house, and be divided 

 lengthwise by a board on edge, which supports the middle of the 

 covering placed over them for holding the sand used for propagating 

 purposes. The water should be about three inches deep in the tanks, 

 which for this purpose should be very carefully levelled. These 

 tanks are covered with thin boards, which, when damp, is a good 

 conductor of heat from the hot water below. The sand should be 

 clean building or lake sand not too fine or too coarse and about 

 three inches deep for starting grape cuttings. 



The larger house (Fig. 440 a) is twenty-two feet wide and seventy- 

 five feet long, and is double, being divided into two parts for heating 

 the propagating beds, but open in one in other respects. The same 



Fig. 440 a. 



furnace heats both these parts by branching pipes. A cross section 

 of the double house is shown in Fig. 441. 



The houses thus constructed are heated by a simple and efficient 

 furnace, made at the locomotive works at Geneva, N. Y. The fur- 

 nace for the larger house is shown in the annexed figures, where 

 442 is a view, and 442 a, a section. It is made of boiler iron, riveted 

 to circular cast-iron plates at top and bottom, with a space within 

 for fire, surrounded by water, with the exception of the grate at bot- 



