194. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Januaex 1, 1861. 
afresh, there would he no difficulty in having a tank below your 
forcing-bed, or, at least, two or three iron pipes according to 
what you wanted, and if not sure, it would be safest to have 
enough. See what is said to another correspondent about pipes 
and tanks. 
3. The one-foot pathway in front must be inconvenient. If 
the pit was sis feet wide, there might be three feet in front as 
well as back, and that would give room for walking, and heating 
medium, &c. 
4. The present width of house would do very well, but if you 
widened the house you would also have to widen the path inside 
too ; for if the present slope of the roof was continued, the space 
near the front, if widened three feet or so, would be so low that 
a person w r ould have to stoop or crawl instead of walking. 
5. If you raised the back wall a couple of feet, and also the 
front wall the same, the new wall to increase the width would 
give that room, and enable you to have a wider pit inside. 
6. We prefer the Vines being planted inside, and in the front 
as in your case, provided the front Avail is on arches, and the 
inside border is the higher of the two when compared with the 
outside border. The wider the inside border, the more secure 
would your roots be at all times. Both inside and outside must 
be well drained, 
7. Now, if your Vines are already planted outside, the build¬ 
ing of another wall three feet further out will be sure to injure 
the roots. If we altered the house at all, we would make it at 
least three or four feet wider. Then if the Vines were strong 
and vigorous, though mismanaged, and showing little signs of 
being too deep, we would begin at the outside of the border, 
and take up the Vines carefully until we came to the three or 
four-feet width of the border, doing it in the first mild weather, 
and wrapping the roots in damp moss in mats, and keeping them 
there until the foundations of the new front wall and the arches 
were made. The new border being drained, &c., the roots 
should be again replanted, and if the ground is covered with 
warm litter, they will soon begin to root afresh. The three or 
four feet untouched will also be a great help. 
8. If the Vines are much out of order they might be cut 
down; and when they broke, select a couple of shoots or so 
from each. This would deprive you of a crop for one year, but 
lay a good foundation for good permanent Vines afterwards. If 
it be feared that no part of the border has previously been well 
drained, we would take the Vines up entirely : if not very old, 
make a proper border, and either transplant and treat as above, 
or plant young Vines rising two years from the bud. 
9. As to placing the Vine-stems outside, see the whole matter 
discussed last week, where the practice could be varied according 
to circumstances. To enable you to do so, and yet have a 
forcing-bed in your house, according to circumstances, without 
exciting your Vines—if you did not wish that to be done, leave 
your present front wall only slightly reduced, and your Vines 
may remain in the space between the two Avails until you want 
to take them into the house; and by regulating the heat there 
by moveable shutters, your Vines may be all broken nicely 
before taken into the hothouse. As illustrative of Avhat we 
SECTION I. 
mean, j%. 1 will represent the house as it now is. The dotted 
line in the pit would show the pit lessened to widen the front 
path. The heating-pipes might then go next the Avail ; and if 
there were any glass in the front Avail a shelf might be placed 
over the pipes, also represented by dotted lines. Fig. 2 repre¬ 
sents the same house widened three feet, but not raised at the 
back, nor the slope of the roof changed. A the old front wall, 
Avith moveable glass sashes or other means on the top of it, it 
being reduced that much in height. B the new front wall on 
SECTION II. 
arches. C the space between the two walls in which the Vines 
are planted, and in which, brought down from the rafters, they 
are kept when in a state of rest—or when wanted to break them 
slowly, by giving a little heat from the inside of the house. 
This arrangement will permit of the house being used as a stove 
in winter, or for forcing anything early before it is deemed 
advisable to set the main Vines going. If deemed advisable to 
force the Vines very early, two or three pipes for hot Avater 
might be put among the rubble below the soil of the border, and 
that part beyond the roof, be covered with dry litter, and a 
Avaterproof covering early in October. 
With sufficient ventilation, it tells much in an economical 
point of view to have all the roof fixed. If you raised the back 
wall two feet, and made the new front wall "four feet, with part 
of it glass or not, the roof would have the appearance of the 
dotted lines Jiff. 2. —R. Fish.] 
STEAD’S IMPROVED PATENT VENTILATING 
CHIMNEY TOPS. 
We have received such favourable reports relative to the 
efficacy of these chimney tops in curing chimneys long known 
as “ inveterate smokers,” that Ave give the invention this pro¬ 
minent notice, with illustrations and an abstract of the speci¬ 
fication. 
These improvements consist in the formation of chimney tops,, 
so that an upward current of air may be insured, thereby pre¬ 
venting the wind from descending in the chimney, and causing it 
to smoke in the room or apartment connected with it; the main 
object being to so arrange a series of wind-guards and Avind-accu- 
mulators, that the upward current inside may be greatly in excess. 
For this purpose, on the outside of the pipe or tube forming the 
chimney top, is fixed a series of vertical ribs with tapering cross 
pieces attached to the edge thereof, forming a series of T-shaped 
ribs round the said pipe or tube. When the wind strikes the 
chimney top it enters between these T-shaped ribs, and its 
egress being prevented by the overhanging edges of the ribs, it is 
forced to travel upwards, through openings provided, into the 
interior of the chimney top, and thus causes an upward current- 
A series of chambers are also provided round the exterior of the 
chimney tube or pipe, and communicating with the interior, for 
the purpose of increasing the upward current of air. And also 
short interior tubes or flat rings, for directing and dividing the 
currents. 
Fiff. 1 is a front elevation ; Jig. 2, a plan ; Jig. 3, a sectional 
