THE FORCING GARDEN. 



527 



expressly built for utility, they are not to be recommended. 

 As they are constructed upon the principle of admitting the 

 greatest number of the rays of heat and light, they also admit 

 of the greatest portion of cold, particularly in windy weather, 

 by allowing it to pass more readily into the house between the 

 laps of the glass. Our own experience, in respect to two cur- 

 vilineal houses for cultivating tropical plants, justifies us in 

 joining to the testimony of others, in stating them to be deci- 

 dedly more difficult to keep to a proper temperature, than 

 houses with sloping roofs, glazed upon the same principle, and 

 of the same dimensions. Indeed, so difficult was it to keep 

 the required temperature in the houses alluded to, notwith- 

 standing there were two fires constantly kept up, and the 

 dimensions of the houses only forty feet long, by eleven wide, 

 and one of them only ten feet high, that we were under the 

 necessity of covering them with double mats during a great 

 part of the winter of 1827. 



The majority of practical gardeners prefer those with straight 

 roofs, and are content with the light and heat that they afibrd, 

 and if we may judge of their relative merits, by the crops of 

 fi'uit produced in both, we see little reason to think that they 

 will ever become general. Economy, combined with utility, 

 we have always considered as a most important consideration 

 in hot-house building, provided that they be so contrived that 

 the plants may derive the due advantages of light, air, heat, 

 soil, and water, these being the principal agents of vegetable 

 life. The merits, therefore, of hot-houses will be judged by the 

 perfection with which those indispensable agents are supplied. 



In our opinion, curvilinear houses have no advantage over 

 others for tlie production of good fruit ; and, as a mere matter 

 of taste, we see no elegance in them that is not to be met with 

 in well-constiucted houses with straight or sloping roofs, if 

 judiciously arranged, either in ranges or detached. In ranges 

 (against walls) curvilinear houses have the appearance of being 

 unconnected, even though they may be joined; and, if detached, 

 they as much resemble huge bird-cages as houses for tlie 

 cultivation of fruits. The most convenient and economical 

 form of house seems to be that of a straight front resting 

 upon a parai)ct of brick or stone, of a proper width, and pre- 



