388 



THE PAEKS AND GAEDENS OP PAEIS. [Chap. XXIT. 



Small Pit used /or Forcing the Vine. 



it is allowed to rise to 78° F. or 80° P., from which time until 

 the Grapes are ripe the heat is maintained at from 80° F. to 

 88° P. The time of flowering requires a great deal of attention, 

 for on it depends entirely the success of the result. In order 

 that fecundation should take place under the most favourable 



circumstances, and that the Grapes 

 should he well formed, it is ab- 

 solutely necessary that the tem- 

 perature should be maintained 

 between 78° F. and 88° F. ; also 

 that the Vine should have plenty 

 of light and dry air. 



"The low span-roofed house is 

 constructed in the following man- 

 ner: — On the east and west are 

 built two small brick walls twenty- 

 eight inches high, and in the centre 

 of the enclosed space are placed strong posts about five feet high, 

 and distant from each other about three feet. A plank fourteen 

 inches wide, nailed on the top of these posts, ties them together 

 solidly and forms a sort of coping. This plank is covered with 

 sheet-zinc, and bars of iron are carried from it to the walls serving 

 as supports to the 

 lights. At each 

 end a door is con- 

 structed for the 

 attendants to go 

 in and out, and on 

 each side is a 

 thermometer for 

 regulating the 

 temperature. The 

 interior of the 

 hothouse is about 

 ten feet wide at 

 the base, so that the rows of Vines are distant from the side- 

 walls about eighteen or twenty inches, and one side gets the 

 effect of the sun in the morning, the other in the afternoon. Two 

 rows of pulleys are attached to the wooden coping for working 



Small span-roofed Pit for Forcing tlit Vitie : ten Jeet five inches wide, 

 and five feet five inches hi^k. 



