258 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— July 10,1856. 
THE AERATION OF VINERIES, AS PRACTISED AT BOWOOD, THE SEAT OF THE 
MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE, F.H.S. By John Spencer, C.M.H.S., Gardener there. 
The imperfect manner in which many of our forcing- 
houses are ventilated is a constant cause of complaint 
amongst gardeners, and various plans have of late been re¬ 
commended to remedy the evil, and to dispense with the 
usual mode of letting down the roof-sashes every time air 
is to be given. Having occasion during the autumn of 1847 
to replant an early Vinery, I took the opportunity of arrang¬ 
ing the aeration of it in accordance with the plan which 
accompanies this paper, and it has so far answered my ex¬ 
pectations, that I now venture to submit it to the Council of 
the Horticultural Society, as a means whereby structures of 
this description may be efficiently aerated at all times and at 
a trifling expense. 
By a reference to the plan it will he seen that the house 
jn question 
was placed 
is one of the common lean-to description, and 
against a wall previously erected, which will 
SECTION OF VINERY AT BOWOOD. 
A. Back wall of house. 
B. Floor of house. 
C. Supports to front plate. 
cl. Large air-drain running parallel with 
the house. 
e. Air-drains entering from behind. 
/. Open chamber for hot-water pipes, or 
due. 
g. Ventilator in back wall. 
h Drains for admitting external air to d. 
i. Air drains communicating with <1 and 
opening into/. 
A". Border tor Vines. 
It . Hot-water pipes. 
m. Sliding-valves for regulating admission 
of air through drain e. 
n. Valves for admitting air from main 
drain d. 
account for its unnecessary thickness. The chamber con¬ 
taining the heating apparatus runs the length of the house 
(see/), and into this chamber, and immediately below the 
flue,* are conducted the cold air drains, both from the back 
of the house and also from an air drain c! running the 
length of the house underneath the Vine border. This 
central drain communicates with the external air by two 
drains h //, which are protected by a wire grating. Both 
sets of drains are furnished with sliding valves made of 
slate, working in a groove m n : to each valve is fixed an 
upright wooden bar furnished with holes, and by means of a 
pin ihe admission of air can be regulated as wished. In 
addition to these drains there are five ventilators in the back 
wall of the house <j. These ore made to slide in a frame, 
and are connected together by an iron rod, having at each 
end a weight attached, by' moving which the whole of the 
ventilators are acted on simultaneously. 
It will be seen by the above description 
that when the valves m and n are raised, and 
the back ventilators opened, a current of air 
is immediately admitted beneath the heating 
medium, and thus gets warmed before coming 
in contact with the foliage of the Vines. The 
general direction of the warmed air is natu¬ 
rally towards the hack ventilators. During 
the winter months aud in dull weather these 
valves require only to be slightly raised, 
keeping a continuous current through the 
house without lowering the temperature. 
During bright sunny days I open the whole of 
them, when of course a more rapid circulation 
of air takes place; but I do not find it ne¬ 
cessary to open the top sashes until the 
weather becomes sufficiently warm that air 
may be admitted without any fear of its in¬ 
juring the foliage by direct exposure to its 
influence, which often occurs to Vines in leaf 
when the sashes are lowered in cold though 
bright weather during winter and early spring. 
I may mention that had I had the entire 
building of the house in the first place, I 
should have preferred building the back wall 
sufficiently high to have left room for the 
back ventilators to have opened above the 
wall-plate and immediately under the coping, 
to remedy the evil, in the present case, of a 
direct current of cold air passing through. I 
have attached on the north side a frame, 
which prevents the air entering the house 
directly from the outside. 
I need not advert to the beneficial effects a 
constant supply of warm air in rapid motion 
must have on the health and fertility of 
plants, particularly of Vines and other exotic 
fruits forced through our comparatively long 
and dull winters, as these facts are sufficiently 
established by our highest authorities, and the 
short though conclusive experience I have 
had with the mode I have described convinces 
me that the above principles might be carried 
out in nearly all our forcing-houses with the 
most decisive results. 1 am now taking steps 
to adopt nearly a similar plan in aerating a 
different description of house, and whioh may 
form the subject of another communication. 
—Horticultural Society's Journal. 
* Lest it may appear strange to speak of a flue here, 
while I have shown hot-water pipes in the section, I 
may mention the flue is merely temporary, and will be 
replaced by hot water when the Vines are strong enough 
to force. 
