CONSTRUCTION OF FRUIT HOUSES 



301 



20 feet in width, better still, 25 or 30 feet. There is no practical difficulty in 

 constructing such a house, nor in heating it, but the ventilation is not quite so 

 simple. It is easy enough ventilating as for a vinery, but this is not enough for 

 an orchard-house. The ideal ventilation vifould be the power to remove 

 the roof and sides altogether in warm weather, allowing the warm wind 

 to play through without let or hindrance. As this is quite impossible the 

 nearest approach to it is to have all the sashes in the front to slide, which 

 IS frequently done. The roof also might be arranged in sashes to slide hori- 

 zontally — not in the old way of sliding down from ridge to eaves, but from 

 end to end. If this were done one-half of the area could be exposed when 

 desirable, and though it would be somewhat expensive in first cost, the ultimate 

 results would be well worth it. Fig. 10 represents such an erection, 25 feet 

 wide, with the sashes open. The arrangement inside as to whether there 



Fig. 10.— Orchard House 



should be wire trellis like a peach-house, or whether the fruit trees should 

 be in pots, tubs, or planted in the border must be left to the individual 

 judgment of the gardener in charge. 



Boilers and Heating Apparatus. — Coming to deal generally with boilers 

 and boiler-setting, chimneys, &c., it is undesirable to be dogmatic. There are few 

 subjects upon which there has been more controversy than hot-water boilers, 

 and it is still going on. One great difference between garden hot-water boilers 

 and steam boilers must not be overlooked, and it is this. With a steam boiler 

 what is wanted is quick, clear combustion, careful and frequent stoking, 

 or, as the case may be, stoking by mechanical means. It is the opposite with a 

 hot-water furnace. We need a furnace that requires little attention, and 

 will go for many hours without assistance ; in short, what is best is a slow 

 smouldering fire which will keep the heat up from 8 P.M. to 8 a.m. For this 

 reason a garden furnace should be of ample capacity, and on the face of it, one 

 would think, of horizontal rather than of vertical form. 



The common saddle is a well-known form of boiler. There are many 



