300 



FRUIT-HOUSES. 



does away with the necessity for con- 

 creting the surface, heating by vaulting 

 underneath, forming hotbeds on the 

 surface outside, and all the other means 

 hitherto tried with so little advantage. 

 The advocates for a great range for the 

 roots will be alarmed at the limits of our 

 space ; but if such sized borders are well 

 made of rich strong loam, and afterwards 

 supplied with liquid manure, the vines 

 will have as much food presented to their 

 roots as they can digest : more would be 

 useless, and extent of border only an 

 inducement to the roots to wander far in 

 quest of that food which they have in 

 abundance nearer home. If planted in 

 front, the vines should be trained to a 

 trellis 18 inches from the glass, and 

 allowed to descend a part of the back 

 wall. Or, if planted at the back, they 

 should be trained 2 feet from the wall, 

 and partially down the glass roof also ; 

 but, in both these cases, they should not 

 be left so thick as to cause shade or 

 obstruct the light; and hence, in such 

 cases, the spur system of pruning should 

 be adopted. The width of such a house 

 may be 6 or 7 feet, and the height 

 9 or 10. This form of vinery may be 

 modified by having the roof in two 

 parts, a lower and larger, and an upper 

 and smaller sash — the rafters being 

 metre-jointed at the angle of junction, 

 and each kept in its proper place by an 

 iron stretcher bar placed between them. 

 Ventilation and planting, the same as 

 in the last example ; and a smoke flue 

 may be substituted for hot-water pipes. 

 Such houses are well adapted for early 

 forcing either vines or peaches. 



Speechlys early vinery. — This great autho- 

 rity on the vine, after pointing out what 

 his ideas were in favour of upright front 

 sashes for an early vinery, instead of a 

 dead dark wall, says : " Supposing a flued 

 wall 12 feet high, the breadth of the bor- 

 der 10 feet, and the height of the upright 

 glass frame, or front, 3 feet, the roof will 

 then form an angle of 43°. Experience 

 shows this to be a proper pitch for vines 

 forced after the vernal equinox. I men- 

 tion this circumstance," he says, " because 

 some persons who give designs for build- 

 ings of this kind, lay so great a stress on 

 this point as to pronounce a vinery or 

 peach-house incapable of answering the 

 intended purpose, should the pitch of the 



roof happen only to vary a degree or two 

 from their favourite angle. Indeed, if 

 we suppose the sun's meridian altitude 

 always the same, such an objection would 

 rest on a solid foundation ; but we know 

 that it not only varies daily, but many 

 degrees in a short space of time, so that if 

 the pitch of the roof depended on so nice 

 a point, what might be deemed right in 

 the early part of the spring would certainly 

 be wrong in the latter part of the summer. 



" Hence it follows that the construction 

 of the different frames or buildings, for 

 the purpose of producing grapes, should 

 not only vary according to the quantity 

 required, but also according to the season 

 in which that fruit is intended to be pro- 

 duced. The roof should be steep for early 

 forcing, and flatter for the summer." — Trea- 

 tise on the Vine, p. 98. 



The early vinery of Nicol is described 

 as being 30 feet long ; for, he remarks, if 

 it were 40 or 45 feet long, two fires would 

 be necessary. The height proposed by 

 him is 13 or 14 feet for the back, the 

 front not to exceed 4 feet, including glass 

 lights and parapet, the width 10 or 11 

 feet. " But if the roof were made to rest 

 on the parapet, without having any up- 

 right glass, and if the parapet were about 

 18 inches high, it would have a much 

 better pitch, and there would be a longer 

 run for the vines. The front flue should 

 be 2 feet clear of the parapet, should re- 

 turn in the middle of the border, and 

 double by the back wall, being separated 

 from it by a 3 -inch cavity — that is, in 

 case of there being but one furnace for 

 the house. But if the house is much 

 above 30 feet in length, and requires two 

 furnaces, one should be placed at each 

 end, and the power of both should be 

 brought to the front, the flue of the one 

 to be placed within 2 feet of the parapet, 

 and of the other, close behind the first, 

 being separated by a 2-inch cavity only, 

 both to stand on a common foundation. 

 The one may return in the middle of the 

 house, and the other by the back wall ; 

 but it will be unnecessary to have a 

 double return in either of them." 



The directions here laid down for flues 

 are equally applicable to hot-water pipes, 

 the latter being much superior to the 

 former, but unknown in Nicol's time. 



The general opinion, it will be seen, is 

 in favour of steep roofs for early vineries. 



