PEACH-HOUSES. 



349 



hot water or steam, may be of any length 

 between 30 and 40 feet, 8 or 9 feet wide, 

 and 1 2 feet high. It should have no up- 

 right glass. The parapet may be about 

 18 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, 

 steam, or hot- water pipes, may run within 

 2 feet of the parapet, and should return 

 by the back wall, being separated from it by 

 a 3-inch cavity. The parapet and front 

 flues or pipes must stand on pillars 3 feet 

 deep under the ground-level, in order to 

 give full scope to the roots of the plants." 



The original early peach-house of At- 

 kinson was much such a house as that 

 just described — with this addition, that 

 ventilation was effected by openings in 

 the front parapet, and also in the back 

 wall near its top, both provided with the 

 means of opening and shutting. 



The late peach-house of Nicol he pro- 

 poses to heat by one fire ; and no peach- 

 house should be larger than one fire will 

 heat — as the fruit, unlike the grape, must 

 be used when ripe ; for the present state 

 of our horticultural knowledge does not 

 extend so far as to enable us to keep it 

 longer. Such a house, therefore, should 

 not exceed " 40 or 45 feet in length, 13 

 or 14 feet wide, and 14 or 15 feet high. 

 It may either have or not have upright 

 glass in front, which should not, however, 

 exceed 4 or i\ feet in height, including the 

 parapet. The flues " (or hot-water pipes) 

 " may be conducted as above specified for 

 the early houses. The intention here is to 

 train the trees on trellises against the back 

 wall, and likewise half-way up the roof, in 

 the manner of vines, so that it may be 

 termed a double peach-house ;" or the trees 

 in front may be trained as standards. 



Fig. 470. 



The late Mr 

 Loudon suggest- 

 ed (but we are 

 not aware if the 

 plan has been 

 carried into ef- 

 fect) a house for 

 early forcing of 

 40 feet in length, 

 8 feet wide, and 

 12 feet high— 

 " the glass to be 



in two planes, each plane forming an angle 

 with the perpendicular of 15°, and formed 

 into sashes, fig. 470, hinged at their upper 

 angles, and opening outwards." 



And for a house for a principal crop, the 

 same ingenious authority also suggested 



a polyproso- 

 - i,L pic roof; with 



the sashes 

 opening on 

 the principle 

 of Venetian 

 blinds, fig. 

 471. 



That these 

 forms of 

 roofs have 

 advantages 

 is quite clear 

 — but whether these advantages are equal 

 to the extra expense of construction, and 

 liability to derangement afterwards, may 

 be questioned. 



The peach-houses at Dalkeith, of which 

 a section is given, fig. 472, are all 12 feet 

 in width within, varying in length from 

 30 to 32 feet, and 10 feet high at the 

 back. They are heated by hot-water 

 pipes placed in a chamber under the level 

 of the floor, and open at top. Into these 

 chambers cold air is admitted from the 

 outside in front, as shown at a, fig. 373, 

 and further explained in article Ventila- 

 tion, fig. 381 ; and these openings serve 

 the purpose of front ventilation, thereby 

 avoiding the necessity of opening the 

 front sashes, unless during the heat of 

 summer, when the external air is suffi- 

 ciently warm to be admitted with safety 

 to the foliage — an improvement, we think, 

 which will appear sufficiently obvious to 

 practical men, over the general mode of 

 opening the front lights whenever venti- 

 lation is required, and whatever may be 

 the state of the weather ; for we all know 

 that nothing is so bad as allowing cur- 

 rents of cold, frosty, keen air to come in 

 immediate contact with the young and 

 tender shoots and foliage of plants en- 

 closed within a high temperature. Nor 

 is this the only advantage of this mode of 

 ventilation. By reason of the difference 

 of gravity between cold and heated air, 

 the cold or heavier air descends through 

 the openings, and, displacing the heated 

 and lighter air in the chamber, drives it 

 upwards with considerable force, creating 



