508 PRACTICE OF GARDENING. Part III. 



been recently erected with iron roofs, and from their decided superiority in admitting light, we have no 

 doubt of curvilinear iron roofs being ultimately adopted, not only for vineries, but for every description 

 of hot-house, as soon as the great importance of light to vegetation, and especially to the flavor of fruits, 

 is fully understood by practical men. 



Sect. III. Construction of the Peach-house. 



2664. A peach-house not intended for early forcing, may be of any shape, provided that 

 the trees are either standards or trained near the glass. Knight and many practical 

 gardeners are of opinion, that the roofs of all peach-houses should be made to take off, 

 in order to color the fruit, and afterwards expose the trees to the weather for the sake of 

 destroying insects. 



2665. In Holland, peaches are often forced iii deep frames (Jig- 446.), filled within a 



foot or eighteen inches of the glass with tan (o), and heated by an exterior lining if ne- 

 cessary. The tree is planted in a box (6), by wliich its roots are confined so as to be- 

 nefit by the heat of the tan, and the branches are trained on a trellis (c), close on the bed. 

 Instead of tan, dung may be used, covered in the flowering season with earth, or tan 

 and earth. In such pits peaches are ripened in Holland, by the middle of May. (Hort. 

 Trans, v. 325.) 



2666. In Denmark, peaches are forced by dung- 

 heat : the tree is planted against the back wall 

 (^fg. 447 a.) which is heated by a lining of dung 

 (b), as are its roots, and the area of the house by 

 another lining {c)t (Liyidegaard in Hort. Trans. 

 V. 320.) 



2667. The peach-house of Nicol for the earliest 

 forcing, to be commanded by one furnace, may be of 



any length, between thirty and forty feet ; eight or 

 nine feet wide, and twelve feet high. It should 

 have no upright glass. The parapet may be about 

 eighteen inches in height, and the rafters should 

 rest immediately upon it. The intention here is, 

 to train the peaches and nectarines up the roof, in 

 the same manner as vines, only a little nearer to 



the glass, and none against the back wall. The 

 front flue may run within two feet of the parapet, and should return by the back wall, 

 being separated from it by a three-inch cavity. The parapet and front flue must stand 

 on pillars, three feet deep under the ground-level, in order to give full scope to the roots of 

 the plants. 



2668. A succession 2}each-house to the above, that is, not to be forced so early, may be 

 of a like length, ten or eleven feet wide, and thirteen or fourteen feet high ; also without 

 upright or front glass, and otherwise may be constructed in all respects as above. 



2669. A late peach-house, to be managed by one furnace, may be forty or forty-five feet 

 long ; thirteen or fourteen feet wide, and fourteen or fifteen feet high. It may either have, 

 or not have, upright glass in front ; which should not, however, exceed four, or four and a 

 half feet in height, including the parapet. The flues may be conducted as above specified 

 for the early houses. The intention here is, to train plants on trellises against the back 

 wall, and likewise half way up tlie roof, in the manner of vines j so that it may be termed 

 a double peach-house. 



2670. The peach-house of M'Phail was made sixty-four feet long, ten feet wide ; the height of the back 

 wall was four feet, and that of the front five feet, in pillars of brick work four feet each in length, 

 which supported the sill to support the frame for the lights to rest upon; so that there were in the front 

 eight vacuities in width, four feet each between the said pillars, for the roots of the trees to extend into 

 the border. " In the inside of the pit, I had a wall built the whole length of the pit, and thirty inches 

 distance from the front pillars. The wall was nine inches thick, and three feet six inches high, about one 

 foot lower than the pillars of brick. I then made a border of good loamy earth, mixed with some very 

 rotten dung, four feet deep, which left a vacancy between the pillars and the sill of nearly one foot, which 

 was filled up with the earth of the border, which reached to the nine-inch wall within the pit, so that 



