510 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



Sect. IV. Construction of the Cherry-house and Fig-house. 



2674. Any form will answer for a cherry-house. Some market-gardeners grow them 

 in houses placed south and north, glazed on all sides, as Andrews at Lambeth ; others 

 in pits, and some in moveable glass cases. 



2675. The cherry-house of Nicol, to be worked by one furnace, may be from thirty to 

 forty feet in length ; from ten to twelve feet wide, and twelve or fourteen feet high. 

 The parapet a foot or eighteen inches, and the front glass two feet, or two and a half feet 

 high. The front flue to stand on the same foundation with the parapet, and its return 

 to be by the back wall ; but both flues to be separated from the walls by a cavity of 

 three inches. The front parapet and flue to stand on pillars ; which pillars should be 

 thirty inches deep under the surface ; the depth, or rather more than the depth requisite 

 for the border. The back wall to be trellised for training cherries to ; and the border 

 to be planted with dwarf-cherries, or with dwarf apricots and figs, or with all three. 

 The front and end flues to be crib-trellised, (i. e. shelves of lattice-work to be placed 

 over them,) for pots of strawberries, kidneybeans, or the like. * 



2676. The fig-house may be of any form not very lofty. One constructed like the 

 cherry-house, Nicol considers, will answer " perfectly well. The figs might be trained 

 to the trellis at back, and either dwarf figs, apricots, or cherries, or all of these, might 

 be planted in the border." As figs are not a popular fruit in Britain, a sufficient num- 

 ber for most families may be grown in pots and tubs, placed in the other hot-houses. 



Sect. V. Of Constructing Hot-houses in Ranges. 



2677. The culinary hot-houses are very frequently placed in a range, by which it is sup- 

 posed something is saved in the expense of the ends, some heat gained, and greater conve- 

 nience of management obtained. Nicol practised this mode, and Hay, as we have seen 

 {fig. 445.) has adopted it at Dalmeny Park, Lundie, and other places. The same plan 

 seems to be followed by Tod, of which, as an example, we may refer to a very substan- 

 tial range {fig. 451.), constructed for the Honorable Champion Dymoke, at Scrivelsby. 

 One of the most ornamental ranges of this sort in the neighborhood of London, is that 

 of the Duke of Devonshire at Chiswick ; but it is also the most gloomy within, of any 

 we have seen. If we may submit our opinion, we should, in most cases, recommend 

 detached houses (as in fig. 262.), in which opinion, we may add, Knight coincides. 



451 



Sect. VI. Construction of Culinary Pits, Frames, and Mushroom-houses. 



2678. Culinary pits may be constructed either with or without flues ; and either of 

 such a height behind as to admit of a walk ; or, so low, as to be managed like a common 

 hot-bed frame. The intention of these pits, as far as culinary gardening is concerned, is 

 first to force fruit-trees, as peaches, grapes, cherries, figs, apples, &c. in pots ; and in 

 this case the design which admits of a passage behind from which to water and manage 

 the plants, will be found preferable ; and secondly, to force strawberries, kidneybeans, 

 potatoes, asparagus, sea-kale, rhubarb, &c. for which a pit sunk in the ground, and to be 

 managed from without, will suffice, and is even preferable, because the plants may be 

 brought close under the glass. 



2679. The pit for fruit-shrubs may be forty feet long, eleven feet wide, within walls ; 

 the angle of the roof from 15 to 20 ; the back path two feet wide, the furnace placed 

 at one end, and the flue passing along the front, separated by a three-inch vacuity from 

 the tan-bed, and returning close under the back wall. These dimensions will give a 

 bark-bed six feet wide, thirty-seven feet long, and, supposing the surface of the pit to 

 be kept level, it may be raised to any convenient height, according to that of the trees to 

 be forced. Whatever be the height to which the pit is raised, the back of the pit should 

 always be at least three and a half feet higher than the front, which will admit of different 

 sizes of trees. The sashes for this pit may be in two lengths, one sliding over the other, as 

 in hot-house roofs ; but a better plan is, to have them to rise in the manner recommended 

 for an early peach-house, (fig. 449.) 



