Page:The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory.djvu/43

Rh house of a substantial nature, well adapted both for keeping a stock of bedding plants in winter and a fair supply of plants in flower all the year through. We must have a good wall to begin with, and reckon that as costing nothing in connection with the undertaking. We must next resolve to have a fixed roof, in order to use light rafters and secure ventilation at the back and front. One considerable item in the cost of glass-houses is the framing of sashes and the making them to slide open for airing. These not only consume a quantity of timber and increase the weight of the roof, which, in its turn, must be supported by large rafters, but they require the time and skill of a competent joiner to frame them. Now, so long as a roof is fixed firmly and steadily in its position, and without movable lights, large rafters may safely be dispensed with, and bars alone be used, as shown in the accompanying plans, the bars to vary in depth and thickness according to the width and

weight of the glass used. The section shows a bar sufficiently stout for glass eight inches wide and sixteen ounces to