Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/236

224 224 HORTICULTURE [FRUIT HOUSES. spaces for general forcing purposes (fig 12). Such a house might be 14 feet wide, consisting of a plunging bed for bottom heat 8 feet wide, a back path of 2 feet provided with a shelf for strawberries near the glass, a front path of 2 feet, and between that and the front wall a stage for pots, which might be used for forcing French beans, and which should be on the same level as the front curb of the centre pit, and about 2^ feet from the glass. The height of the back wall should be 15 feet. The house should be heated by three or four hot-water pipes placed beneatli the front stage, and two placed close to the wall in the back path ; and the FIG. 12. Modern Pinery. necessary bottom heat should be provided by fermenting tan or leaves, or by hot-water pipes or a hot-water tank placed beneath the plunging bed. Ventilators should be fixed at short intervals in the front wall beneath the stage and opposite the heating pipes ; and the alternate upper sashes should be made to open, or cor responding ventilators close to the top of the back wall should be provided. If the stock of pine plants is not extensive, certain and abund ant crops of fruit cannot be expected ; and it is therefore necessary to have not only fruiting pineries but pineries for succession plants. These are generally called pine pits, and differ little from the pits used for accommodating other tender plants. Two or three succes sion pits are required to provide a stock of plants to keep the fruiting-house filled. Low-roofed pits are to be preferred, not only on account of their appearance, but because the pine can only be cultivated in its highest state of perfection when grown in pits just sufficient for the full development of the foliage and crown of the fruit. These pits, if span-roofed, should be provided with a central path under the ridge, just high enough for a work man to stand upright, and a plunging-pit on each side ; but any ordinary well-constructed pit will answer the purpose if sufficiently heated. The Peach House is a structure in which the ripening of the fruit is accelerated by the judicious employment of artificial heat. For early forcing, as in vineries, the lean-to form is to be preferred, and the house may have a tolerably sharp pitch. A width of 7 or 8 feet, with the glass slope continued down to within a foot or two of the ground, and without any upright front sashes, will be suitable for such a house, which may also be conveniently divided into compartments of from 30 to 50 feet in length according to the extent of the building, small houses being preferable to larger ones. As a very high temperature is not required, two or three pipes running the whole length of the house will suffice. The front wall should be built on piers and arches to allow the roots to pass out wards into a prepared border, the trees being planted just within the house. Abundant means of ventilation should be provided. For more general purposes the house represented in fig. 13 will be found more useful. One set of trees is planted near the front, and trained to an arched trellis b. Another set is planted at the back, and trained on a trellis c, which is nearly upright, and leans against the back wall ; or the back wall itself may be used for training. There are no upright front sashes, but to facilitate ventilation there are ventilators d in the front wall, and the upper roof sashes are made to move up and down for the same object. Two or three hot-water pipes are placed near the front wall. The back wall is usually planted with dwarf and standard trees alter nately, the latter being temporary, and intended to furnish the upper part of the trellis, while the permanent dwarfs are gradually tilling up the trellis from below. In any case the front trellis should stop conveniently short of the top of the sashes if there are trees against the back wall, in order to admit light to them. They would also be better carried up nearly parallel to the roof, aiid at about 1 foot distant from it, supposing there were no trees at the back. A span-roofed house, being lighter than a lean-to, would be so much the better for peach culture, especially for the crop grown just in anticipation of those from the open walls, since a high temperature is not required. A low span, with dwarf side walls, and a lantern ventilator along the ridge, the height &quot;in the centre being 9 feet, would be very well adapted for the purpose. The trees should be planted inside and trained up towards the ridge on a trellis about a foot from the glass, the walls being arched to per mit the egress of the roots. A trellis path should run along the centre, and mov able pieces of trellis should FIG. 13. Peach House. be provided to prevent trampling on the soil while dressing and tying in the young wood. The Cucumber and Melon House. Wherever a continuous supply Cucum of cucumbers and a considerable number of melons are required, it ber an&amp;lt; is found most convenient to grow them in houses, the attention melon required and the risk of failures being much less than when hot- house. beds and pits heated by fermenting materials are employed. The best form of house is a narrow span (fig. 14), on account of the much greater amount of light which it admits. The width should be 12 feet, the height about 10 feet, and the length divided into short portions so as to be worked in succession ; a 60-feet house divided into three 20-feet portions would be found very useful, as FIG. 14. Span-Roofed Cucumber House. one or more could be taken for either crop according to the demand. The inside arrangements should include a pathway a of 3 feet in the centre, two beds b, b provided with hot-water pipes c, c or hot- water tank for bottom heat, two pipes d, d on each side for warm ing the atmosphere, a lantern ventilator e at the ridge, and open ings in the wall /beneath the beds to admit fresh air, and a trellis (j for training the plants, fixed at 12 or 18 inches from the roof. Where the house is built against a wall, the hipped form of roof is to be preferred, as it will admit more light, and also allows more space for the cucumber or melon vines. Fig. 15, from Moore s Treatise on the Cucumber, shows such a structure, in which b is the pathway, c front ventilator, d back ventilator, e hot -water pipes, and f tank for bottom heat. The cold air admitted at c enters a chamber g ; thence it passes into the space