June 10. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
103 
bodder; but could the wisest in the nursery trade have 
hit upon names more attractive to the ear, and the “ tell¬ 
ing” of which would have made the purchaser pay his 
money more readily. Aye, there is much in a name. 
If we keep in our present mood, the dealers in novelties 
will have as much need to employ a captivating name- 
finder, as Moses and Son have occasion for a rhyming 
poet. Again, time out of mind, gardeners, out of neces¬ 
sity, have resorted to all sorts of structures for then- 
plants, vegetables, and fruits; some of them rustic, plain 
and unadorned, as any of the cracked-up cheap conveni¬ 
ences of present times. First, there was the protecting 
medium of talc, cloth, oiled-paper, thin glasses, made into 
pieces or sashes, and these again transferred to walls, 
fences, frames, and pits, such as we alluded to the other 
week. Ere long the inconveniences of these, as prevent¬ 
ing the proprietor from examining the contents, unless 
in the finest weather, led to the deepening of the pit, so 
that he could get along it, or the deepening of a place 
behind it, sheltered from the weather, where he could 
walk and perform the necessary operations; the origin 
of our houses with a hipped roof; and then, when 
glass became more common, and tho importance of light 
was felt, a span-roof was formed by placing two sashes 
together at any desirable angle; and many a temporary 
structure was thus often hastily formed, and as quickly 
removed when the necessity for it was withdrawn. But 
did any recommending of such places, by gardeners, ever 
give such an impetus to their erection and use by the 
middle classes as the propounding of the benefits of 
such places by Mr. Rivers, under the new title of 
Orchard Houses. The new name was the charm. No¬ 
velty in the application there might be, though I failed 
to discover it, in the hedge used instead of a wall, and 
thus acting as a sifting air medium, and yet a protecting 
agent—in the cut out path, to enable walking room, or 
even iir the growing in pots, as that had long been done 
with all except our hardiest fruit-trees. There was, 
indeed, novelty, in the simplicity, cheapness, and effect¬ 
iveness for a given purpose, with which they were 
erected ; but there was no now principle ushered in, and 
scarcely any new development of an old one; and yet 
Mr. Rivers, by these houses of his, and the captivating 
name he gave them, has been happily greatly instru¬ 
mental in diffusing a desire for the possesion of such 
houses, and better finished structures, by masses of 
readers, who otherwise might have continued to look at 
them as hopelessly beyond their reach. Whether he 
can claim novelty of invention or not, ought the benefi¬ 
cial result to weaken our gratitude to the successfid 
instrument? Long before orchard houses were heard 
of, their principle had been acted and improved upon. 
A hipped roof was an improvement on the lean-to—a 
span-roof an improvement on the hipped. A wall of 
brick, of earth, of wood, or even reeds, or straw, or fern, 
with means for giving air at pleasure, was superior to 
any hedge of living material. Such span-roofed houses, 
standing with their ends nearly north and south, we 
have had to manage many years ago. I witnessed a 
very spacious one near London lately, where it has been 
long devoted to fruit and vegetable culture ; and at 
Stowe, there is not one only, but a regular series of little 
villages of such houses, in which peaches, cherries, 
plums, &c., are grown on trellises near the glass, all as 
thickly studded with fruit as possible. It would have 
been impossible to say whether the trees on the east or 
the west side were likely to do the best, as all stood 
greatly in need of thinning, the fruit was so thick. 
Here there was no occasion for sinking a path, as the 
houses intended for early forcing being put up at an 
acute angle, the junction of the sashes at the apex left 
plenty of walking room, though the lower end of the 
glass sashes rested on a wall near the ground. This 
season the trees had received no forcing, but, as I under¬ 
stood, it had been found requisite to light a fire on 
several frosty nights. I mention this, because, in con¬ 
structing a fac-simile of these orchard houses, whether 
for fruit trees or flowering plants, without any heating 
medium, much disappointment, we fear, will be the 
result, if the retarding process, or a protecting medium 
for the glass, or both, are not resorted to. As these 
structures will be found as applicable to flowering plants 
as to fruit trees, planted out or grown in pots, these 
hints will not be found out of place by those who wish 
for structures either cheap or elegant. To meet their 
case still further I will glance at the following questions. 
1st. “ I want economically to apply my six lights of pit 
and frame, so that I can examine what is in them at all 
seasons. Brick and stone are expensive; wood, especi¬ 
ally larch poles, and turf, cheap. How am I to act?” A 
glass hipped roof, over a pathway, is for you the thing. 
Your lights are seven feet in length. Well, suppose you 
sink a pit from two-and-half feet to three feet beneath 
the surface, and from nine-and-half feet to ten feet in 
width; tho front wall above the surface-line may be 
one foot in height, and the back wall from three feet to 
three-and-lialf feet; from the wall-plate, at back, have a 
short rafter about three feet in length, raised to an angle 
at the apex, to meet the rafter that is to sustain your 
sashes; the apex will thus be somewhere about eight 
feet from the base line of your pit, thus furnishing the 
tallest of men room for themselves, and a. chimney-pot 
hat into the bargain. We have seen such pits constructed 
of turf, of clay and straw wattled together, and plastered 
when dry, upright wood-work being introduced every 
two or three feet to keep the building secure; of straw 
packed close between a double row of upright posts, and 
the inner and outside sides with reeds, or drawn straw 
placed upright to throw off wet. We have even seen 
furze and fern used for such a purpose, and the opaque 
part of the roof boarded slate-fashion, or thatched with 
straw, broom, or heath. As far as warmth was concerned, 
these make-sliifts were superior to brick or stono walls; 
but the chief drawback about them, is the opportunity 
afforded by them for lodgings to destructive vermin. A 
very substantial and lasting pit may be formed by double 
boarding, and filling the place between with saw dust, 
or by a double row of larch poles, their ends burned, and 
driven into the soil, kept secure in their place by a 
stout rail binding them in the middle, and a stout wall- 
plate connecting altogether firmly at the top. The space 
between might be from six inches to nine inches, and 
filled with saw-dust, dry moss, or even dry earth. In all 
this, however made, whatever materials used, the ex¬ 
pense and trouble will only be a little more than for an 
ordinary pit, but the comfort and advantages are greatly 
superior. We suppose that you have a door made in 
one end so as to get in under your hipped roof. Allow¬ 
ing fi’om two feet to three feet in width for a pathway, 
you might form a back to your pit, so that you could use 
fermenting material when desirable; or you could have 
merely stout posts and rail to support a platform of slabs 
two-and-half feet to three feet from the ground; or piers, 
or arches to carry an elegant platform of latticed work of 
wood, or slabs of stone or slate; or, if you wished to pre¬ 
serve large specimens, you need neither platform nor pit. 
When a platform was used for small growing plants, 
you could keep a great many things in a dormant state 
beneath it by merely keeping them dry. By using glass 
instead of asphalt, felt, or any opaque substance, for a 
back hipped roof, the back wall could also be covered, or 
furnished with shelves from top to bottom. The beauty 
of it is, that you can examine your plants in all weather, 
and by using coverings fixed to frames for protection, they 
will always be easily taken off and on when necessary. By 
tacking a lath along the sides of your sash, this sliding 
of the covers will neither scratch your sashes, nor injure 
the paint. When the bright days of summer come, 
