JULY. 
197 
CONSTRUCTION OP FRUIT HOUSES. 
At page 110 of our April number we noticed what side and end 
ventilation could be given to a set of houses with ridge and furrow roofs, 
and also pointed out a means, of assisting the perfect aeration of such 
houses by underground air flues running through them; there only 
remains to notice the ventilation of the roof, the management of which 
has until very recently been beset with difficulties. 
That the non-efficient ventilation of these descriptions of roofs has 
hitherto prevented their more general application to fruit culture is 
admitted. Owing to the peculiar construction of roof the heated air, as 
a matter of course, accumulated in the upper angle of each ridge, and 
in bright weather became too hot for the foliage underneath, which 
scorched in consequence and damaged the fruit, and has thus brought 
the system into disrepute; for the ordinary mode of ventilating them by 
openings at back and front is quite inadequate where the houses are 
more than ten or twelve feet wide, and nothing of the size we are 
describing should be attempted without having a provision for allowing 
the heated air to escape by the top of the ridges. To effect this 
several plans have been invented, of which we shall describe two,— 
one as applicable to houses where the span of the ridge is wide, as in 
the case of orchard houses and ordinary span roofs ; and the other 
adapted to ridge roofs of not more than four or five feet span. For 
large ridges a very simple and efficient plan is to allow a space of 
twelve or fourteen inches between the two side sashes at the top, which 
will rest against a frame, answering the double purpose of keeping them 
apart and forming a sill for the slides above to work on ; light uprights 
are also placed four feet apart, supporting the top rail. The sliding 
frames may be from eight to twelve inches high, the whole to be 
capped with either boards or zinc, or weather boards overlaid with 
zinc, to keep the rain from entering the house, forming a kind of 
ventilating lantern, the sides of which are formed into glazed 
frames each two feet long, one of which must be made so as to 
slide by the other in a groove, the other to be fixed. An horizontal 
iron rod will be run through the sliding sashes on each side, and by 
means of a small cord and pulley connected with the rod at the end, the 
sliding frames can be opened or shut at pleasure either from within or 
outside the house. In arranging the sliding sashes, they should not 
open opposite each other, but alternately, so as to equalise the admission 
and escape of air. We have stated that this plan is more suitable for 
ridges with large spans than for the comparatively small span of ordinary 
ridge and furrow houses. Where the plan adopted by Mr. Fleming, of 
Trentham, with his new Vineries is carried out, this will be found a 
great improvement, so far as the simple and expeditious opening and 
closing of the ventilators is concerned, as by means of this apparatus a 
large house can have every ridge ventilated instantaneously by raising 
the caps fitting into the apex of each angle. 
By Mr. Fleming’s system an open space of six inches is left at the 
top, in which is inserted a frame having a moveable cap, fitting closely 
on the frame when down, to exclude rain, and which is raised at 
