124 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 10 . 
considerable experience, T have no preference for having 
such a house all floored over, either with tiles or stones, 
although some very able gardeners prefer having their 
houses so done. 1 would confine the paving and stoning 
to the pathways, in all cases where there is a platform 
and shelves, just because it is so much easier to keep a ; 
bed or border neat or clean than a quantity of paving, j 
It is no joke keeping the latter from getting green and j 
dirty by means of soap and scrubbing brush, though the ; 
most effectual remedy is a solution of soda. A few 
spadesful of sandy earth thrown on your borders, and | 
neatly raked, makes them always look neat and fresh. | 
I would act, therefore, differently, if I removed such a 
depth. I would run a drain through the centre over 
that; and for the width of the house, I would place a 
foot of rough rubble, of any come-at-able substance, 
and over that I should fill with good mellow loam, and 
then I might plant out climbers, vines, &c., inside, , 
with the certainty they would do well whenever I chose 
to try them. 
Did the flues run on the east side, as proposed, the 
vines might be planted on the west side, or even in the 
middle of the house, and then be trained both ways; or, 
| if the shallow flues went, as mentioned above, beneath 
the paths, the vines might be planted on both sides, as 
the bottom of the flue would not hurt the roots, the i 
chief heat being on the surface; and in either of these 
cases, the vines would be next to independent of auy 
outside border. 
7tidy. “ Whether should I plant the Vines, inside or 
outside ?”—Roth, as has been seen, are equally good, if 
properly done. If planted inside, the stems are neither 
twisted, nor exposed to frosts, and the roots inside, at 
| least, are saved from low temperatures. Planted in the 
middle of such a house, fourteen feet wide, we should 
| care nothing about the roots going outside at all, if the 
j inside border was properly prepared. If planted in a 
' small border inside, close to the side walls, these walls 
must be on arches, to let the roots freely out. But here 
one thing is essential, your outside border should not 
be higher than the inner one, or the vine roots will get 
j unduly covered. By planting outside, you may raise the ! 
border close to the wall, as near to the glass as you 
please, and thus give it a good slope to the morning and 
afternoon sun. In such a case, the border should be 
at least six or seven feet wide. Properly drained, the 
vines will do well on the level, if anything like a bank 
against the house is not desirable ; but dryness is more 
easily obtained if the border slopes. 
8thly. Ventilation. —Of course you could not slope 
the border much if the front ventilation was to be in 
the side walls of two-and-a-half feet in height. Front 
ventilation may thus, however, be well secured; and il 
the flue runs near the wall, the air would be heated 
before dispersing among the plants in winter. Four 
object, we presume, is to have your front sashes a fix¬ 
ture. We also perceive you wish your roof-sashes to I 
be fixtures; and by means of opening the doors, and j 
throwing in a great body of air at the apex of the roof j 
at the two gable ends, l think you will manage, if you 
have no partitions. But with a partition, the heat would 
unduly accumulate there, and you would either require 
to have a thorough draught through, or some of the 
sashes be made to move, or some of them made shorter, 
and so as to abut against a glazed or wooden ventilator 
in the apex, hung upon pivots, and made to open or 
shut easily. Supposing you have a partition, either of 
these last modes would be better than having a draught 
through all the top of the house, as this would interfere 
with keeping each division in the very condition you 
might require. If the roof on each side was in two 
divisions, the upper sash small and moveable, it would 
be best of all, and then you could dispense with opening 
the gable ends altogether. 
9thly. Size of Squares of Glass. —This is matter of 
taste and economy—eighteen inches by from seven to 
ten, are good sizes; when larger, a break is a smash. 
lOthly. “ Should I putty the laps?” Decidedly, No ; 
unless you secure the most efficient ventilation, and 
even then we see no utility in the practice if the glazing 
is well done. The weather and dirt will soon putty 
them. 
] lthly. “ If the roof is merely at an angle of from 30° 
to 35°, will not rain and wind drive in?” We presume 
that you mean because it will be so flat. 1 have re¬ 
served this inquiry for the last. It is quite evident our 
present inquirer entertains the same views with respect 
to the angles of a roof, as another correspondent referred 
to elsewhere. In other words, both have taken the 
French instead of the English mode of computation. I 
have no prejudice myself, but I think it is time that our 
coadjutors, and other gardening writers should decide 
definitively on the subject, as the root our friend speaks 
of I suspect to be identical with what I should call an 
angle of G0° or 55°, the latter of which will answer very 
well for general purposes, as he will be helped by the 
upright glass in winter, and spring, and autumn. A 
rise of another foot in the roof would be iavourable. In 
our younger days we never heard ot this other mode ol 
computation, but now it requires one to study the con¬ 
text to see what is meant. The height of our iriend s 
house supplies us in the present case, as we can judge 
how much the apex of the roof is above the plate on 
which it rests. Now, until advised to the contrary, 
I think the old English system the best. The angle 
of the roof we speak of is merely that enclosed 
between the sloping roof and the perpendicular 
wall of a lean-to, or the imaginary perpendicular 
between the two slopes of a span roof. Now, we speak 
as if the more upright the glass, the smaller, conse¬ 
quently, the space between the sloping line and the 
perpendicular, the smaller would be the figure ot the 
angle ; but some of our friends compute very differently ; 
so that what I would call 10°, they would call 80°, 90°, 
70°, and so on, until we happened to be alike at 45°, 
and then to diverge just as much again. This happens 
from computing from different sides ot the quadrant. 
For example, take or make one of these articles, board 
or pasteboard will do, in the corner, opposite the arc 
of 90°, fix a string, with a weight at its end, that will 
pass beyond the graduated arc. Place the side of the 
quadrant, nearest the figures 1, 5, 10, &c., on an equal 
line with the slope of the roof, and the weight will hang 
the string at the figure representing the identical angle, 
from 35° in an early peach house to 80° in a flat garden 
frame. But place the other side of the quadrant, 
nearest 90°, against the sloping roof, and your plummet 
line will give 55° for your early peach-house, and 10° for 
the common garden frame. Now this, without much 
study, will show how the difference happens. Cannot a 
universal plan be adopted. What say the editor and 
contributors ? R- Fish. 
THE CARNATION. 
(Continued from yaye 101 .) 
Propagation. —There are three modes by which the 
! Carnation can be increased, namely, by Seed, by Layers, 
j and by Pipings, or, more correctly speaking, by Cuttings. 
The first is practised with a view of obtaining new and 
improved varieties, and the two latter to propagate them 
when obtained. 
By Seed. —The single flowered Carnation being in 
the condition in which it grows wild, with all its parts 
complete, produces the best and most perfect seed; but 
then it is useless to the florist, for double flowers only 
are valued by him. Now, as like generally produces 
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