Sect. II.
Of the Culture of the Pine, as given by Phillip Miller in his Gardener’s Dictionary.
Form of House. It was formerly the practice, Miller observes, to build dry stoves, in which the plants were kept in winter, placed on scaffolds, after the manner in which orange-trees are placed in a green-house; and in summer, in hot-beds of tanners’ bark, under frames. But it is now the practice, he adds, to erect low stoves, called the succession-house, with pits therein for the hot-bed. It is also necessary to have a bark-pit under a deep frame, for bringing forward the suckers and crowns to supply the succession-house.
Mr. Miller’s fruiting-house has upright glasses in front, high enough to admit a person to walk upright on the walk in front of the house. Over the upright glasses there must be a range of sloping glasses, “which must run to join the roof, which should come so far from the back wall as to cover the flues and the walk behind the tan-pit; for if the sloping glasses are of length sufficient to reach nearly over the bed, the plants will require no more light: therefore these glasses should not be longer than is absolutely necessary, that they may be the more manageable.”
The difference between this stove and that of Speechly is, that in the latter the sloping sashes reach to the back wall, by which means, instead of a useless opaque roof over the path, an excellent place is formed for training a vine; and this being at all times the hottest part of the house, such vines as are there trained will produce very early and high-flavoured fruit.
The succession-house of Miller has no upright glass, and only a walk at the back of the house: the bark-pit may be partly sunk in the ground, if the situation be dry; or if wet, kept above it. The flue makes three returns against the back wall, beginning from the level of the walk. Many persons, he says, have made tan-beds, with two flues running through the back wall, and covered with glasses, like common hot-beds; but, besides the inconvenience of taking off the glasses when the plants want water, the damps rise in winter when the glasses are closely shut, and there is danger of the tan taking fire.
The improvement on this plan consists in detaching the flue from the back wall, and separating it from the tan by a vacuity of two or three inches; or, what is still better, placing the flue in front similarly detached, and surrounded by air on all sides.
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