6 FRUIT CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



of plants than a smaller surface kept at scorcMng heat. 

 I therefore recommend, as shown in the sections 

 given, a liberal amount of pipes and plenty of boiler- 

 power. Besides this I feel fully persuaded, from my 

 experience, that coverings applied to the glass, parti- 

 cularly in the case of fruit swelling off during the colder 

 months of the year, are an immense advantage. A high 

 and steady temperature can be much more easily and 

 economically maintained, and without a parched atmo- 

 sphere, which in the case of hard forcing in winter 

 requires so much and such constant counteracting. 



I have a decided objection to flat-roofed pineries. 

 They are da,rk, and very productive of drip in winter — 

 conditions the most undesirable in the culture of most 

 plants, and especially so in that of the pine-apple. 

 Ventilation should be amply provided for at the apex 

 of the roof; and, particularly in fruiting-houses, there 

 should also be ventilators at intervals along the front, 

 so placed as to cause the air to pass inward in contact 

 with the hot-water pipes. Front ventilation is not to 

 be recommended as a rule ; but it is well to provide for 

 it in the erection of pineries, so that in very hot calm 

 days it can be applied, especially in the case of fruit 

 that are colouring. 



AU pineries and pits should be provided with a 

 steadily-acting steaming apparatus, which can be used 

 or not according as circumstances demand. 



A great many methods of supplying moisture to the 

 atmosphere of hothouses have been adopted — such as 

 zinc troughs placed on the pipes, trough scast on the 

 pipes themselves, a flow of water running in an open 

 gutter, rising out of the flow-pipe at one end of the 

 house and dropping into the return at the other. I 



