1871 



THE POMOLOGIST AND GARDENER. 



311 



Fig. 5. 



Fig. 6. 



and builder than for the vines. For permanent 

 luxury nothing is too extr.avagant for the plain 

 homestead. Simple efficiency is the most appropri- 

 ate. The dotted lines in Fig. 5 indicate better 

 shaped roofs than the full figure. 



As a reasonable and durable way to build, as in 

 Fig. 4, lay the foundation in stone or brick, the 

 best materials, least affected by the weather. On 

 the top of the wall thus built lay a wood-sill, well 

 coated with coal tar and linseed oil. Let the sill 

 be two or three inches thick, and as wide, or a 

 little wider than the wall, so as to protect the wall 

 from the drip inside and the rain outside of the 

 house. Now mortice in at about three feet apart, 

 on the sides and ends, the studs or uprights for the 

 ventilators, and cap these short studs, with a plate 

 two or thre inches tliick and four or si.x Inches 

 wide, which plates receive the lower ends of your 

 immovable sash rafters, the ends of the house being 

 closed by perpendicular sash, extending from the 

 end-plates to the rafters. As the greatest liability 

 to rotting is at the ventilators and foot of the raf- 

 ters, thoroughly cover these parts everywhere, in the 

 mortices and unexposed as well as exposed parts, 

 with coal-tar and linseed oil, half and half boiled 

 together : use durable wood, if it can be got. The 

 ventilators below the eaves are simple iuch boards, 

 battened on the inside or outside to keep them 

 from warping, and hung to the plate by any con- 

 venient kind of hinges. The board ventilators are 

 wide enough if not less than four inches or over 

 twelve inehes wide, and should be hung along the 

 sides of the house, painting the inside and edges 

 with the coal-tar and linseed oil, and the outside 

 with white lead or other color. The ventilators 

 may be pannelled and they will look better, or a 

 row of panes of glass set in sash ventilators will be 

 more useful. It is, on the whole, advisable to put 

 on cave-troughs to cany off the water that falls on 

 the roof, if there be a supply bj' a spring, or to fill 

 the cistern, if that is the source for irrigation, as 

 well as to save dampness in the wall and in the .soil of 

 the mound. Of course, it will be understood that 

 the rafters are grooved for the glass and do not 

 slide or open. As guides for sizes for such 



a vinery, we give five to six feet from the 

 border to the glass roof; or to let the builder 

 have all the liberty we can, say four feet is 

 low enough for the eaves, and eight feet is high 

 enough — the best judgment he has, of the lines 

 between these extremities ; and twelve or fourteen 

 teet from the border to the ridge of the house. 

 Length of rafters, about fourteen or sixteen feet. 



The top ventilation is a matter of more difficulty 

 than any, for the following demands are to be met : 

 Enough of it, complete control over it, and that 

 it be water and air tight. It is at the top of 

 the house and cannot be ordinarily reached, except 

 by the aparatus for opening and closing ; the heat is 

 apt to warp the ventilators, and thus render them 

 not air-tight and to make leaks. To remedy 

 the defects of the top ventilation many plans have 

 been suggested. A good one is seen in fig. 5, from 

 the Horticulturist, and with the assistance of Mr. 

 Davis, a successful grape grower, the modification 

 found in fig. 6 has a good one. 



Fig. 5 consists of a cap-piece fastened to sliding 

 rods, and opened by raising the cap by means of 

 the rods. Fig. 6 consists of a similar cap piece, 

 hinged on a frame made by itself and put between 

 the rafters, the hinges being on the side next to the 

 prevalent cold winds, and is opened by rods or 

 other convenient mechanism. Or it may be made 

 of two boards nailed to a roof-shaped batten and 

 hinged as before ; or of a single row of glass lights 

 in a frame of sash, on each side of the ridge. 

 The latter is the most costly. Figure 7 is a 

 cheaper mode of ventilation, made either of plain 

 battened boards, or of sash-frames and glass, and 

 opened by a rod, as represented. But it will be 

 found that ventilation represented in figs. 5 and C 

 are the best. 



Rafters one inch and a-quarter thick, and two 

 and a half wide, are stout enough, and should be 

 set edgewise, there being three sets of posts to 

 support them — one for the ridge, and one on each 

 side of the ridge, these posts having string-pieces 

 on their tops to which the rafters are nailed. Four 

 by four inch posts for the ridge, turned or not, and 

 two and a half inch posts for the sides, are large 



