226 



EDIFICES USED IN HORTICULTURE. 



a book-case, partitioned off, because moths are apt to be introduced along 

 with some kinds of seeds, for a garden-library, unless this is kept in the 

 head gardener's house as a part of his furniture ; a press for compressing 

 dried herbs into cakes, to be afterwards wrapped up so as to be air-tight in, 

 paper, and kept in drawers to be taken out as wanted for the kitchen ; 

 and a variety of minor articles, some of which have been mentioned (389), 

 and others will occur in practice. 



527. Root-cellar and other conveniences. — Underneath the fruit or seed- 

 room, if the soil is dry, there may be a cellar for preserving dahlia-roots, 

 bulbs, potatoes, &c. ; though, on a small scale, the seed-room and some part 

 of the sheds may serve as substitutes. A mushroom-house, and a house for 

 forcing rhubarb and succory, and for producing early potatoes by a particular 

 process which may be carried on in the dark, may also form part of the back 

 sheds ; and a supply of water by a pump or well, or by a large cistern, sup- 

 plied by an hydraulic ram, or other means ; and conveniences for liquid 

 manure, lime-water, &c., &c., must not be forgotten. In short, whatever is 

 wanting for the cultivation and management of a garden, exclusive of plant- 

 structures and the gardener's house, should be provided for in the bacls sheds ; 

 and, as a general principle, it may be laid down that every plant-structure 

 that has a back shed should have a direct communication with it by means of 

 a door in the back wall. By means of this communication much time is 

 saved in conveying articles from the shed to the house, and the contrary ; 

 fires can be more promptly attended to, and^ above all, plants in pots can be 

 taken into the shed and examined or shifted, without exposing them to the 

 open air. 



528. The tool-house should adjoin the seed-room, and should be fitted up 

 as before indicated (389). The potting-sheds should contain, facing the 

 windows, benches for potting on, and ample space for pots, crocks, potting 

 trowels, stakes, ties, tallies, bell-glasses, and a variety of other articles. Soils 

 are in general fresher, and in a better state, when kept m the open air ; 

 but still there ought to be bins for sand, peat, leaf-mould, and some other 

 kinds in constant use. 



529. Open Sheds. — A portion of the sheds open in front ought to be set 

 apart for tanner's bark, and other portions for hotbed-frames and such like 

 portable structures, or articles that would be injured by exposure to the 

 weather when not in use ; one for sticks for peas, props for plants, mats, 

 coal or wood for fuel, and for other purposes. In short, there can hardly be 

 too much shed-room ; for besides all the ordinary purposes mentioned, a 

 portion of it may be sometimes required for preserving deciduous greenhouse 

 plants through the winter for which there is not room in the plant-structures, 

 such as large Fuchsias, Brugmansias, pomegranates, and many other plants 

 which are turned out into the open garden during summer. If there is no 

 regular mushroom-house, that vegetable may be grown in the open shed, on 

 dung ridges covered with hay and mats. Tart rhubarb and sea kale, may 

 be forced there, protected by mats supported on hoops ; peas and beans for 

 early crops may be germinated before being transplanted into the open 

 garden ; and indeed there is no end to the objects that may be effected 

 within open sheds, while on their roofs onions may be dried in wet seasons; 

 a practice very general in Scotland and hi the north of England. . 



