365 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ November 8, 1877. 



Bnn's rays, and possessing great dryness on account of its 

 elevated position. I find that there are three great evils to be 

 guarded against, and these are damp, frost, and artificial heat. 

 My room is 21 feet loDg, 16 wide, and 7 feet 6 inches high, 

 with the two outer walls looking respectively towards the 

 north and the east. The walls are thoroughly plastered, as is 

 also the ceiling, the latter three coats deep, and the floor con- 

 sists of composition. Clean dry sawdust is Btrewn on the floor, 

 and likewise on the top of the ceiling between the rafters, 

 being intended in the latter case to keep out the frost. Two 

 opening windows look towards the north, and are each fitted 

 on the inside with shutters, which should be closed in severe 

 weather, and the space between them and the window padded 

 with any clean dry material. The door is single, and on the 

 south side, but it can be converted into a double door when 

 required, and the space between closely padded, as in the case 

 of the windows. Thus the room is almost air-tight in frosty 

 weather. All ventilation is effected by means of the door and 

 the windows ; and as fresh air, with a good amount of light, iB 

 required at all times, I open them whenever the weather per- 

 mits. Should the day be damp and cloudy, or the wind in the 

 north, I do not open the room, but otherwise I never lose a 

 chance of admitting light and air, if only for half an hour. 

 On the 8th of December, when we had 20° of frost, the tem- 

 perature in the room did not fall below 3S% and this was with- 

 out the aid of artificial heat. As a rule, the temperature is 

 nearly 48°, and this c*n with careful attention be maintained 

 for weeks without artificial means. 



At each end of the room are arranged fruit-shelves for the 

 best varieties of dessert Pears and Apples, whilst the centre of 

 the room is devoted to the keeping of Grapes. We have here 

 eight standards, 6A feet high and 2 inches square, into two 

 sides of which are let, alternately, brackets 

 1J inch thick, and which, after being thus 

 fixed, measure 4J by 3J. Four of these 

 standards are placed on each side of the 

 room, leaving a passage-way all round them. 

 The bottle-receptacles are then laid on the 

 brackets, so as to rest perfectly flat, and 

 are made fast with one screw-nail driven 

 through the under side of the bracket into 

 the under Bide of the bottle-receptacle. A 

 light facing of wood fitted on the front of 

 the standard rests upon the receptacle and 

 fits under each bracket, thus preventing 

 the receptacle from rising up behind, and 

 giving the whole a neat and finished ap- 

 pearance. Each pair of standards has 

 seven 10-feet lengths of bottle-receptacles, 

 four on one Bide and three on the other, 

 each length holding eleven bottles, so that 

 each pair of standards carries seventy- 

 seven bottles ; it has also an iron spike in 

 the top. There are two laths of wood 

 along the top of the standards, with holes 

 in them at the same distance as that at 

 which the standards are placed, and bound 

 together by means of an iron spike, which 

 passes through the holes. Fig. 69 shows 

 the standard. Fig. 70 shows the top of 

 the bottle-receptacle. Fig. 71 gives a full- 

 sized sectional view of the receptacle containing the bottle. 



with, as the shoot becomes perfectlyjhard^and dry, and will 

 neither take in nor give off moisture. 



I have the bottles prepared beforehand, and after cutting'the 

 ■shoots off at the second eye beneath the bunqh, if possible, I 

 carry the bunches, with all the green foliage untouched, to the 

 storing room, and place them in their respective positions. 

 This foliage should be allowed to die-off of its own accord, 

 after which it must be carefully removed. 



Fig. 71. 



When I have put the first lot past I go to the vinery and 

 make another selection, to come in at the proper time. Al- 

 though this may seem a slow process to some, I am, neverthe- 

 less, perfectly satisfied in my own mind that it answers better 

 in the end. The foliage was nearly all gone from the Lady 

 Downe's when I cut them, but this autumn I intend to select 

 them in the same way as I did the Muscats. 



I think the time is not far distant when Grape-rooms will 

 be as common as our fruit-rooms, and answer the end in view 

 just aa well, provided they are caie/ully attended to, for with- 

 out this Grapes will not keep four or five months. — Kichabd 

 Niseet, Aswarhy Park Gardens, Falkingham. 



P.S. — The bottles are all stoppered with wadding, as in 

 fig. 71. 



BEDDING PLANT HOUSE. 



We have received so many inquiries on this subject — that 

 is, a house efficient and economical — that we submit a sectional 

 drawing of a house erected by Mr. Peach, and on which he has 

 written as follows : — 



The plant house which I have put up here is economical in 

 point of expense and economical as regards spacp, all the plants 

 being fully exposed to light. There are two shelves carried all 

 the way round, one of which, the centre shelf, is wide enough 



r~^ 



n n 



A 



Fig. 70. 



I have tried many different mixtures for filling the bottles, 

 but I find there is none equal to charcoal and pure rain water, 

 close to which the Btalk of the bunch of Grapes is placed, as 

 Bhown in fig. 71. The Grapes should be cut as they ripen, and 

 not taken off all at once irrespective of their exact condition. 

 Ten or twelve days before I cut any bunches I went over all the 

 Vines in the Muscat house, trained on the extension system, 

 the foliage of which was at that time perfectly green and 

 healthy. From these I selected from forty to fifty ripe 

 bunches, the shoots of which I shortened to two eyes above 

 the bunch, at the same time letting remain what small laterals 

 there were attached to these eyes. By thus cutting back the 

 shoots ten or twelve days before taking the bunches to the 

 room, the use of sealing-wax or any other material is dispensed 



! for four rows of 4-ineh pots placed crossing each other; the 

 ! outer one is for three rows of pots. The plants on the shelves 

 | are easily watered by a small step ladder from the central path. 

 | I use no putty and have no laps ; the glass in the sides (marked 

 c in the section), merely slips into grooves, the upper groove 

 | being made seven-eighths of an inch deep, the lower one three- 

 eighths. The glass is slipped up into the upper groove first 

 | and allowed to fall into the lower one. The glaBs for the 

 j rafters and sides is all of one size — 20 inches by 16, and is 

 21-oz. fourths. The upright Bide pieces, 3 inches by 2, which 

 support the upper piece of wood, 3 inches by 3, on which the 

 rafters rest, are set back 1 inch on the wall-plate, so as to 

 allow the glass to slide freely past them in the groove. The 

 glass ia continuous on the sides from one end to the other, the 



