330 



FRUIT-HOUSES. 



from the chamber ; g the surface of the 

 border. 



References to cross section, fig. 446 : 

 a a shows the drainage ; b b the pavement 

 covering over the chambering ; c c, &c., 

 the chambers. 



References to ground-plan, fig. 447 : 

 abed shows the vault, with the square 

 piers for supporting the pavement ; e the 

 stoke-hole furnace, the direction of the 

 hot-water pipes proceeding from the 

 boiler across the house and border to the 

 front, and, after making the circuit of the 

 border, returning again to the boiler. 



Another ingenious mode of bringing in 

 air, and causing it to circulate through 

 the interior of the house, is, as will be 

 seen by a glance at the section of the 

 vinery, the employment of air-tubes 

 placed immediately in front and close to 

 the parapet wall, down which a supply of 

 fresh air rushes, and is carried along till 

 immediately under the hot-water pipes in 

 front of the house, where it rises under the 

 lower pipe and so becomes warmed before 

 it comes in contact with the plants. 

 Another pipe descends at the bottom of 

 the back wall, which is the coldest part of 

 the house, and conducts the cold air from 

 thence, to become also warmed by the 

 pipes in front. Three vineries, with two 

 chambered borders, a mushroom-house, 

 and a liquid-manure tank, are all heated 

 by one boiler. 



Trellises for vineries. — These are, in 

 general, of the simplest form — namely, 

 wrought-iron eyed studs driven, or, much 

 better, screwed, into the lower part of 

 the rafter, through which wires are 

 drawn and tightened by screws at the 

 ends of the house. These studs should 

 be not less than from 15 to 18 inches 

 long, to allow sufficient space for the 

 foliage under the glass. The horizontal 

 wires for vines may be from 12 to 15 

 inches apart, and extend from bottom to 

 top of the rafter, forming means for 

 training the shoots under the whole of 

 the roof. When this mode is adopted, 

 no other trellis is required. The back 

 walls of vineries are often, and not im- 

 properly, trellised in a way similar to the 

 roof, for the purpose of training figs to, 

 which succeed better under the partial 

 shade of other trees than any other of 

 our forced fruits. 



Rafter-training is, perhaps, more gene- 



rally adopted than any other mode. It 

 causes less shade in the lower part of the 

 house than any other ; and the fruit, 

 having more light and sun, is considered 

 better. In this mode of training, the 

 wires to which the shoots are attached 

 run parallel with the rafter from bottom 

 to top, and are fastened to it by means of 

 branched wrought-iron eyed studs placed 

 at distances of from 3 to 4 feet apart. 



" The movable rafter trellis consists of 

 a rod bent parallel to the roof, with hori- 

 zontal studs or rods, extending from 6 to 

 10 inches on each side, containing two 

 collateral wires, the rod itself forming the 

 third. This rod is hinged, or moves in an 

 eye or loop, fixed either immediately 

 above the plate of the parapet, or near 

 the top of the front glass. It terminates 

 within 1 or 2 feet of the back wall, and 

 is suspended from the roof by two or 

 more pieces of chain attached to the 

 studs, the links of which are put on 

 hooks fixed to proper parts of the roof. 

 Their advantage is chiefly in the case of 

 very early forcing, when they can be let 

 down 2 or 3 feet from the glass ; and this 

 is to lessen the risk of injury from frost. 

 A whole sheet or segment of trellis, if 

 desirable, may be lowered or raised on 

 the same general plan." — Encyc. of Gard. 



Hanging or gable trellises were first 

 brought into notice about 1817, and 

 exemplified in the vineries of the Hon. 

 Robert Lindsay at Balcarras, and soon 

 afterwards adopted by Mr Hay the garden 

 architect. Some of them are occasionally 

 still met with ; but, as they are less adapted 

 for vines than for peaches, we find them 

 almost confined to the latter description 

 of hothouses, in which they had been 

 used at a much earlier period. 



§ 2. — PINERIES. 



In construction, externally, the pinery 

 differs little from the vinery, and the two 

 are very frequently combined. In the 

 former, provision is made for having 

 beds in the middle heated by the fermen- 

 tation of vegetable substances — such as 

 tanners' bark, leaves, flax refuse, stable 

 manure, moss, &c, or by tanks of water 

 heated by steam, or from a hot-water 

 boiler connected with them, or by admit- 

 ting steam into masses of broken stones 



