334 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, March 5, 1861. 
ranging from 12 feet to 24 feet in width, and from 30 feet to 
100 feet in length. My chief objects were to see these cold 
houses, to receive ocular proof of the economy and utility of 
the brick Arnott’s stoves, and to notice how the frost had acted 
in-doors and out. It would be vain to attempt the description 
of such a place in a single article, and after the lapse of a fort¬ 
night I may make some mistakes in the matters to which I may 
shortly refer. 
Effects op the Erost. —These I found worse than I had 
anticipated. A deep, new cutting had been made for the high¬ 
way within 20 to 30 yards of Mr. Rivers’ mansion. A wall next 
the road keeps the bank up, and a little beyond the house this 
circumstance affords an easy mode of loading the huge packages 
of trees by rolling them into the cart instead of lifting them. This 
bank, on Mr. Rivers’ side, and also on the opposite side of the 
road, had huge masses of all the best and hardiest climbing 
Roses, allowed to grow as wild and free as they liked; and I 
can well conceive the beauty of the masses of bloom thus pre¬ 
sented to the view of every wayfarer. The great proportion 
even of these hardy Roses were much injured, and many killed 
to the bottom. All the tenderer Roses grown as standards, 
and even young plants budded low that were not protected by 
snow, if not killed, will be unsaleable this season. Though 
there were great quantities safe in the orchard and other houses, 
the proprietor, as soon as he saw how the frost would serve him, 
had resorted to every means to obtain a supply from warmer 
latitudes, where the sun had so hardened the wood that even 
the frost would not injure. 
In the many furlings of low walls of wood, of brick solid and 
hollow—the latter answering no better than the former as re¬ 
spects warmth—Apricot trees had suffered considerably, and 
Peaches and Nectarines very much. A good many had been 
sold early in autumn, before the frost, and orders had since 
been given not to send out a single tree, however urgently 
required, unless it was perfectly sound. A great many will 
break when cut close back; but,'of course, the sale for the 
season will be lost. In the open air young Deodars and Arau¬ 
carias were much browned ; and m the glass-covered houses, 
with Beech and Arbor Yitse hedges for walls, fine stools and 
young layers of Magnolia grandiflora were much injured, and 
Tea and other tender Roses dead to the ground, but likely to 
spring again. 
The people who feel a sort of delight in knowing that they are 
not alone in misfortune may be glad to know that such a veteran 
as Mr. Rivers could not foresee and prepare for all contingencies. 
Had it been known what the last week in December would do, 
thousands of these fine trees might have been laid in by the 
heels in an orchard-house, and thus not have had the points of 
the shoots injured. Even if taken up at the end of October the 
arresting of growth, with little or no protection, would have 
kept them safe. I noticed a large quarter of Apricots thus laid 
in by the heels close together, and, though the snow might have 
helped them, they were all as fresh and sound as could be. I 
learned from another source that a quarter of standard Roses 
had partly been taken up, and laid in by the heels at the end 
of November, and the rest allowed to stand. Of the latter, 
hardly one has escaped ; of the former, hardly one was injured. 
I noticed that whole beds of young Pinuses, Junipers, &c., in 
pots, and budded Peaches, Roses, &c., were just laid down with 
their pots on their broad sides, and covered with straw and mats, 
and were all as sound as could be—the laying down of the pots 
keeping the soil from being deluged, and the coverings above 
them preventing the pots and the earth beneath them getting 
cooled. The great proportion of these would have been irre¬ 
parably injured if left out exposed ; and in such a large concern [ 
it is almost impossible that everything the least tender can be 
got under cover on a sudden emergency. 
With much that is suggestive in the outside nursery, perhaps 
more especially in the quarters of our hardy fruits, the trees 
trained in different modes, but all having their fruit-spurs near 
home from frequent pinching and frequent lifting, so that the 
roots were like huge wigs, I will pass by all, me rely noticing, 
first, that whole quarters, properly lettered to kinds, were laid 
in by the heels—as, unless this were done in time, it would 
be impossible to execute orders quickly enough ; and secondly, 
that Mr. Rivers has found he can master the canker in such 
fine fruits as the Ribston Pippin Apple by lifting the trees and 
replanting them every second year at the end of October. 
Orchard-houses have been defined to be glass houses for 
fruit trees without any artificial heat. The larger and more ! 
numerous houses are still of this description. Even those to 
which heat is applied by brick stoves and hot water are mostly 
built after the same style, consisting entirely of wood and glass. 
The lean-to seemed to have been the first idea. A row of posts 
—larch, deal, or oak—is fixed at the requisite height for the 
back, and these have boards nailed on them for the back wall, 
with openings left for giving air at top and bottom. A similar 
plan is adopted for the low wall in front, but one of the boards 
in front is made to open all the way. I noticed one of the 
oldest of the houses of this description devoted to Vines, with 
a sunk path in the centre; where the larch posts were giving 
way at the bottom they had been cut to where they were quite 
sound, and a low brick wall placed beneath them. The height 
of the back wall made these comparatively extensive. In cold 
districts, or where walls already exist, Mr. Rivers approves of 
covering the ground in front of them with a sloping shed-roof 
in the usual way. Such houses he prefers to be about 12 feet 
wide, and the rafter sash-bars 14 feet long, and 4J- inches deep 
by 1J inch wide. Under general circumstances he greatly 
prefers span-roofed houses for economy and utility. The economy 
is greatly enhanced, not only by the fixed roof and the large 
squares of glass used, but also from having demonstrated that in 
such houses any ventilation in the roof is totally unnecessary, of 
which more anon. 
The most perfect size for these smaller span-roofed houses, and 
especially suitable for amateurs, Mr. Rivers considers to be— 
width, 14 feet; height to centre ridgeboard, 9 feet; height of 
boarded side-walls, 5 feet. The door is in the centre of each 
end, and the triangular space above the doorway is made to open 
on hinges. The side walls are made of oak posts, and a plate 
on the top of them 5 inches by 3 inches. To that plate and the 
ridgeboard the sash-bar rafters are fixed opposite each other, so 
as to receive glass 20 inches wide and 12 inches deep, and 16 ozs. 
to the foot. On the sides a foot or 15 inches of glass are 
generally placed under the eaveboards. From thence to the 
bottom, boards three-quarters of an inch thick are nailed on the 
posts, with the exception of one board a foot wide all the way 
on each side, about the middle, which is hinged so as to fall 
down over the one below it for ventilation. Such a house may 
be finished, and painted, altogether for £1 the lineal foot. 
The widths of these houses, however, arc very various, many 
being 20 feet. One of the most splendid is one 100 feet long, 
24 feet wide, 12 feet high to the centre, sides 5 feet 3 inches, 
18 inches of that being glass, and the hinged shutter for venti¬ 
lation 18 inches deep. The openings over the doorway in the 
ends were 3 feet deep, open all the summer. Six feet from each 
side were a row of seven slight iron pillars, at equal distances 
from each other, fixed to a bar of iron let into the rafter sash- 
bars; and, as far as I recollect, a stout iron rod went across 
from pillar to pillar. Thus, even allowing a yard of pathway all 
round, there would be a bed 6 feet wide at the two sides, and 
a bed in the centre of 9 feet wide for tall plants. The centre of 
the house was chiefly filled with Vines—and fine plants too, 
though the best had gone, and the sides with many et-ceteras; 
and I certainly was surprised that this splendid house was 
finished by an eminent tradesman for something near 305. per 
lineal foot, or £150. 
The utility of such houses, not only for saving our tender 
fruit blossoms in spring, but also for securing our tender fruit 
trees from severe frost in winter, was sufficiently apparent. The 
greatest cold experienced at the nursery was on Christmas- 
morning, v.’lien the glass indicated out of doors 2° below zero. 
The greatest cold registered in any of these unheated houses 
was 10° above zero. Even 22° below freezing are no joke. It 
; will freeze soil if at all damp 3 inches or 4 inches deep, even under 
glass, if it continue a few days. I am not aware that any 
Peaches, Apricots, Vines, Roses, &c., placed in these houses 
suffered in the least. Their security was owing somewhat to the 
ripeness of their wood, the comparative dryness of the soil in 
the pots, the stillness and dryness of the enclosed atmosphere; 
but also not a little to the fact that the pots were either plunged 
in, or at least were well covered over with, tree leaves or litter. 
Other things being equal, plants in pots, without any such 
care as that last alluded to, are more liable to injury than plants 
growing in the ground. They should always, however, be pro¬ 
tected in winter. On this account, and also for saving labour 
in summer, many would prefer planting out their bush or pyra¬ 
midal Peach trees in their orchard-houses. Mr. Rivers has 
houses so planted out, Cherries lifted every two years, and 
! Peaches, Apricots, &c., lifted at the end of October every year, 
