COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
April 17. 
37 
house; the end is open to the street; the winds at present [ 
have full play over the space where the roots of the Vine 
are to be planted. I wish to have arches, or places, 
under the pit, or space for Pines, in which I wish to 
force Sea-kale, Rhubarb, and Mushrooms. What space | 
ought I to allow for them ? also, what depth ought the j 
pit to be in soil ? I intend the front of the house to he 
live feet, one-half glass, the other brick-work, four-and-a- 
lialf inches thick; the height of the house at the back to 
be eight or nine feet. I wish to place shelves, on which 
to grow Potatoes, Mustard and Cress, Lettuce, Radishes, 
or anything you can suggest, to be fixed to the walls of 
my dwelling. At what distances ought they to be placed, 
and how wide must they be not to shade each other? [ 
At the end I should have, say three feet brickwork, the 
remainder glass. I am not decided about heating, 
whether by gas or stove. Glass to be Hartley’s Rough j 
Plate throughout.— Donton.” 
I would give prominence to the above letter, because 
considerable intercourse with amateurs with limited 
means enables me to know that the aspirations of the 
writer are shared in hy multitudes, and whose en¬ 
thusiasm is apt to be damped, if not destroyed, because 
they have failed from attemptiug what, in their case, 
was next to the unattainable. There is an old adage, 
“that the person who strives to get a silk mantle will, 
in all likelihood, be at last rewarded with a sleeve of 
the desired material.” Attempt nothing, and you will 
realise nothing, is a maxim that cannot be disputed. 
And yet, with a numerous class of enthusiastic garden- I 
ers, the want of gaining desirable results is oftener | 
owing to the attempting too much, rather thau the 
attempting too little. I have every sympathy with them, 
because I have generally been placed in a similar 
predicament, and I know how anxious a lover of 
vegetable nature is to squeeze as much variety as he can 
into his house, or garden, of some ten or twenty feet 
square. Were I to tell him that he is likely to succeed 
with a variety of things, each demanding a different 
treatment, I should only be leading him astray. True, 
a noble enthusiasm may receive a slight check; but it is 
better that the remainder be right directed, than that the 
enthusiasm should be lessened by disappointment, or 
changed altogether into rooted aversion. 
The above letter is just a sample of the sanguine 
enquiries often presented privately, and it does often 
grieve to be forced to say JSfo, when it is perfectly 
evident a confident Yes is expected. Now, we must say 
No! to Mr. Donton, so far as he expects to grow Pines, 
and Grapes, and Potatoes, and Rhubarb, and Sea-kale, 
&c., in a small house so circumstanced as he has 
described, and expect to succeed with them all. 
We are not told on what this house is to be erected 
some sixteen feet above the ground level—we presume 
on the top of some level-roofed building between the 
mansion and the shed. We see that the back of the 
hothouse will be against the dwelling house, eleven feet 
six inches in length, where it joins a diagonal line of 
dwelling-house, e.s.e., until at the width of eight feet, 
and the opposite end being to the back square; the 
length of the house would be seventeen feet four inches. 
It will therefore be evident that the •whole of the light 
for the house must be admitted at the w.n.w. end, 
open to the street, and the front side facing s.s.w. 
But nine feet in front of this is a neighbour’s house, ten 
feet higher than the floor of the hothouse, and, I 
presume, five feet higher than the front of the house, 
and one foot higher than the highest point at the back. 
The w.n.w end is at present open, but that would 
tell but little upon the house, in comparison to the light 
that shines upon the front; and this would be much 
shaded during the dark months of the year, when the 
sun is low in the horizon, at the time that tropical 
plants, such as Pines, would require every possible 
ray. The sun, for months, would never strike directly 
the front of the house at all, and, therefore, if in such 
a place Pines should be grown, they would succeed better 
in a sloping bank near the back of the house than 
towards the front; and if the back of the house was 
raised a couple of feet or so, more light would be 
admitted; and if the sashes were not moveable, 
ventilators could be placed in the sharp angle of the 
roof. 
Convenience of such a House. —The door, no doubt, may 
be placed in the most convenient place; but how are 
you to get at it. Is it to be over the top of the shed, by 
ladder, or how ? I fear, if such is the caso, you will 
soon tire of the house, from the mere labour and fatigue 
involved. A plant-house at such a height could only 
remain a pleasurable affair by having a direct com¬ 
munication with the dwelling-house. 
Heating such a House. —However you heated, whether 
by gas or stove, you could scarcely manage such plants 
as the Pine without bottom-heat, and for this hot-water 
would be best. Now, at the very least, you would require 
two three or four-inch pipes below the bed for bottom- 
heat, and two round the w. end, and along the front, for 
top-lieat. Now, as the cheapest plan would be to place 
these pipes in rubble, and the soil above, we will just 
glance at that plan in unison with your contemplated 
arrangements. 
The Pines would require a space of at least three feet 
from the soil to the glass, and eighteen inches of soil. 
With a height of five feet in front, this would give you 
little room for pipes and rubble over them ; but as the 
back of your pit would be from seven to eight feet to 
the glass, the heating medium might be nearest to the 
back, though even then there would scarcely be room 
for arches for any purpose. Supposing, however, you 
had set your mind upon Pines, and that they might 
obtain the most light you could give them ; had con¬ 
sented to have your bed at the back of the house, say 
four feet wide; and then, if disposed, you might raise 
your bed on arches nearly two feet high in front, and 
higher behind, say three or four arches for the house; 
the bottom-heating pipes could pass through the crowns 
of such arches, and you would have space enough above, 
after packing the hollows of the arches, and around the 
pipes with brick-bats, to have eighteen inches of soil, 
and about three feet above it to the glass in front of the 
bed and more behind. This would accommodate two 
rows of Pines. If the arches in front were furnished 
with wooden lids, and young, fresh Rhubarb plants were 
used, you could easily, from well-grown roots, obtain a 
good supply of Rhubarb and Sea-kale, Chiccory, &c., so 
loug as the temperature in the house did not rise above 
from 55° to 60°. With a path twenty-four or twenty- 
seven inches wide, you would have room for a useful 
shelf in front, from eighteen to twenty-one inches wide, 
or that might be reserved for another pit, or boxes of 
that width for Vines, and a shelf might go over them all 
the same. By this plan you would require no shelves 
on the walls of your house, unless, perhaps, a very short 
one near the doorway. 
i Growing Radishes, Potatoes, Cress, £c., in such a 
House. —According to your proposed plan this would be 
; impossible. By keeping a temperature not above 55* 
in winter, you might manage a few Potatoes in pots 
' and boxes, but above that temperature, and without 
plenty of air, you would assuredly fail; the Potatoes 
I getting weak and insect covered, and the Radishes 
growing all to top. Cress would soon come to the 
cutting state in such a place, but would require to be 
used almost directly. Now, where such a mixture of 
i Vines, Pines, Potatoes, Radishes, Sea-kale, &c., are de¬ 
sirable, and a little extra expense no object, all this 
might be done in the following way :— 
Have the pit at the back from three-aud-a-half to four 
