October  3,  1901. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
309 
Travelling  Glass  Houses. 
These  useful  inventions  have  long  been  turned  to  profitable  account 
by  market  growers,  but  as  far  as  I  am  aware,  as  yet  they  have  been 
but  little  used  in  private 
gardens.  I  cannot,  however, 
think  that  this  state  of  affairs 
will  long  continue,  seeing  the 
many  ways  in  which  ihey  may 
with  advantage  be  used.  Per¬ 
haps  one  drawback  to  their  use 
in  private  gardens  is  that  a 
long  strip  of  ground  is  neces¬ 
sary  on  which  to  grow  a 
succession  of  crops,  so  that 
each  may  receive  the  pro¬ 
tection  needed  at  a  certain 
stage  of  their  growth.  Such 
stripf  could  not  often  be  spared 
in  tke  kitchen  garden  proper, 
but  as  there  is  usually  an 
unenclosed  quarter  connected 
with  many  gardens  this  diffi¬ 
culty  should  be  easily  over¬ 
come. 
All  the  bouses  I  have  yet 
seen  have  beeu  wide  span- 
roofed,  but  I  see  no  reason 
why  others  from  12  to  15  feet 
in  width  should  not  be  con¬ 
structed  on  the  same  principle. 
To  make  the  best  use  of  such 
houses  when  erected  a  regular 
system  of  cropping  must  of 
course  be  adopted,  so  that  as 
soon  as  one  crop  has  been 
cleared  another  growing  in  a 
division  near  it  has  reached 
that  stage  in  which  the  pro¬ 
tection  of  glass  is  beneficial. 
The  following  is  a  good  system 
which  answers  the  purpose 
admirably.  Let  us  suppose  a 
house  is  made  to  travel  over 
two  other  spaces  equal  in  size 
to  that  on  which  it  stands. 
Its  present  position  we  will 
call  No.  1.  This  can  now  be 
filled  with  October-flowering 
Chrysanthemums  lifted  from 
some  other  part  of  the  garden. 
No.  2  should  be  planted  with 
an  early  variety  of  Cabbage 
Lettuce,  and  No.  3  with 
Strawberries. 
So  soon  as  the  Chrysan¬ 
themums  have  been  cut  the 
house  is  moved  on  to  the 
quarter  planted  with  Lettuce, 
and  the  Chrysanthemum  stools 
should  be  covered  with  rough 
strawy  material  to  protect 
them  from  frost.  The  Chrys¬ 
anthemums  might  be  retained 
in  this  position  for  a  couple 
of  years,  or  the  usual  plan 
followed  of  growing  them  in 
other  quarters  throughout  the 
summer,  and  removing  them 
to  space  No.  1  in  late  Sep¬ 
tember.  When  the  Lettuce 
are  cleared  in  spring,  the 
space  they  occupied  should  be 
planted  with  Tomatoes,  which 
would  he  over  in  time  to  run 
the  house  back  to  the  Chrys¬ 
anthemum  quarter.  The  first 
year  the  Strawberries  would  perhaps  not  he  sufficiently  strong  to  pay 
for  covering,  but  the  following  year,  as  soon  as  the  Lettuce  were 
cleared,  if  the  house  is  run  over  the  Strawberry  quarter,  it  will 
protect  the  blossoms  from  fiost,  and  insure  earlier  crops  than  could  be 
obtained  without  such  protection. 
In  the  meantime  Tomatoes  could  bef  planted  on  the  Lettuce  quarter 
from  the  middle  to  the  end  of  May,  and  would  get  established  by  the 
time  the  Strawberries  were  over  and  the  home  at  liberty  to  cover 
them  and  bring  them  on  more  quickly.  If  a  fourth  quarter  was  added, 
a  succe^sional  bed  of  Strawberries  might  with  advantage  be  planted 
on  it  next  year.  This  would 
have  outdoor  culture  for  a 
year  or  two,  and  would  be  in 
prime  bearing  condition  by  the 
time  the  earliest  planted  bed 
needed  removal. 
I  have  never  heard  of 
travelling  houses  being  uti¬ 
lised  for  Vine  growing,  but  it 
seems  to  me  they  would  be 
of  imrpense  service  where  early 
Grapes  are  grown.  I  suspect 
every  gardener  who  cuts  ripe 
Grapes  in  May  or  June  has 
often  lamented  the  fact  that 
the  house  in  which  they  are 
grown  can  be  turned  to  so 
little  profitable  use  during  the 
remainder  of  the  summer. 
Now  why  should  we  not  train 
our  Vines  to  curved  trellises 
fixed  in  the  ground,  and  as 
soon  as  the  Grapes  are  cut, 
push  the  houses  forward  to 
cover  Tomatoes  previously 
planted  in  readiness,  or  after 
the  houses  been  moved,  plant 
them  with  Cucumbers  or 
Melons  ?  The  Vines  would  be 
all  the  better  for  the  exposure, 
and  the  houses  would  certainly 
be  better  employed  for  three 
months  than  they  usually  are 
at  present. 
To  some  \  'perhaps  the 
thought  may  occur  that  as 
early  Grapes  are  generally 
grown  in  lean-to  structures, 
there  may  bej  some  difficulty 
in  building  that  type  of  house 
for  “  travelling  ;  ”  but  I  have 
in  my  mind  a  clear  idea  of 
the  way  in  which  it  J  could 
be  done,  and  I  doubt  not 
that  the  firms  who  make  a 
speciality  of  building  “  travel¬ 
ling  ”  houses  do  not  confine 
their  plans  entirely  to  struc¬ 
tures  of  the  span-roofed  form. 
There  are,  I  am  firmly  con¬ 
vinced,  great  opportunities  for 
the  extended  use  of  movable 
glass  houses  in  both  market 
and  private  gardens,  and 
perhaps  we  may  live  to  see 
them  largely  employed  for 
hardy  fruit  culture,  as  the 
same  house  could  be  used  ti 
cover  a  breadth  of  Pears, 
Plums,  and  Apples  during 
the  critical  time  of  flowering, 
and  would  then  be  available 
for  growing  other  crops  during 
the  greater  part  of  the  year. — 
M IDLANDER. 
Jplfismu?  C©f«!£W5  /IT  WYMtmS  BECK 
'WlfSBERMBBEo  c  Photo  by  BRunsKju. 
ICC.  Distribution  of 
Surplus  Plants. — By  order 
of  the  Parks  Committee  of  the 
London  County  Council  a  dis¬ 
tribution  of  surplus  plants  in 
the  parks  and  open  spaces 
under  their  control  will 
take  place  as  follows  : — Sydenham  Wells  Park,  October  15th  ;  Brockwell, 
Dulwich,  and  Deptford  Parks,  October  16th ;  Myatt’s  Fields,  October 
16:h;  Ravenscourt  and  Clissold  Parks,  October  18th;  Royal  Victoria 
Gardens,  North  Woolwich,  October  22nd ;  Southwark  Park,  Ootober 
23rd  :  and  Waterlow  Park,  October  24th. 
