MA.Y. 



07 



bottom heat, and the hotter the climate of which the plants are natives, the 

 greater the bottom heat they require. Again, we have all read and heard 

 what has been said about Polmaise, both for and against ; and I have always 

 held that it is the true and best principle, but that it has never been properly 

 carried out. I have always had a wish to do so, but only lately had the oppor- 

 tunity. Now I intend working it out on a somewhat extensive scale, having 

 taken upwards of eighty acres of land at Ascot, where the situation, soil, and 

 other requisites are all that could be desired. Further, I shall be most happy 

 to show my plans and what I am there doing to any one interested in the 

 growth of these fruits, or I shall be glad to learn from others any improve- 

 ments on my plans, for, whatever perfection we may fancy we have arrived at, 

 there is generally room left for some improvement. 



I am for Polmaise heating, both for the roots and the branches. I intend 

 growing Peaches, Nectarines, Grapes, and Pine Apples ; and, as I take 

 much interest in hybridising and proving the seedlings, I have arranged the 

 houses on the following system : — At Ascot we have plenty of peat for fuel ; 

 I have, therefore, made a large boiler in which we can burn it. The boiler is 

 put together in the following manner — six-feet lengths of two-inch pipes are 

 put into siphon bends and made in the shape of a box, 7 feet long 3 feet 

 10 inches wide and 3 feet high, with two rows of pipes on the top. The whole 

 is arched over and the fire is made in the middle of the box, which has a large 

 furnace-door at one end, the smoke going out at the other. A large boiler is 

 preferable in many ways to a number of small ones, as it saves both labour and 

 fuel. This boiler will heat seven span-roofed houses, each house 65 feet long 

 and 18 feet wide inside measurement, arranged as follows : — There is a centre 

 house with three others on each side at right angles to it, the whole built on 

 arches. The centre house contains the flows and returns of the other six, with 

 stop-valves to let in or shut off from all or any of them at pleasure : therefore, 

 when any of these six houses are heated, the centre one must be likewise ; 

 therefore it will be used for growing Pine Apples. In the others there will be 

 two for late and two for early Vines, and two for Peaches and Nectarines, 

 which will be grown as pyramids, but planted out in the inside borders of the 

 house. The six houses will have two nine-feet arches running the whole length 

 of them, and every arch has a passage under it, so that a man can walk up 

 under the arches, which are built in brick and filled up with concrete to their 

 crowns to form the floors for the Vine-borders, leaving the centre 3 inches 

 lower than the sides, where a three-inch drain is placed. There are also six 

 shafts, formed of six-inch earthen socket-pipes, carried up through the crowns 

 of the arches in each house, three taken up about a foot higher than the level of 

 the soil of the border in the house, and three nearly level with the soil. Now, 

 as there will be two doors at the end of each house to enter the passages under 

 the arches, and as these doors will have small ventilators in each, and as the 

 vaults will be heated with hot-water pipes in bad weather when no air can be 

 admitted above in the house, it is intended to let in a little fresh air, which 

 will be thus warmed and passed up into the house ; and as three of the shafts 

 are higher than the other three, all the warm air will pass up these and the 

 cold air down the lower three. Thus a constant stream of pure warm air will 

 be passing round the house : this I call Polmaise improved. Again, as it is 

 desirable to get a root-action first, especially for the Vines (as I maintain that 

 the reason, in many instances, of bad setting of Grapes is that the branches are 

 forced before there is a root-action, and consequently not sufficient vigour to 

 set the fruit — this is especially the case with the Muscat and Frontignan 

 kinds), and as the arches and concrete are thick and would take a considerable 

 time to let the heat pass up through them, I propose, after the flooring is 



