The Chasselas de Fontainebleau grape, our Royal Muscadine, ripens there in the open air, in average seasons, on the 25th of August: this is as nearly as possible the time when it ripens here under glass without artificial heat. The black Hamburg grape ripens at Angers on the 25th of September: in one of my vineries in a warm situation, I have had them fully ripe on the 15th without fire-heat We can thus, at a little expense, in our own dear native land, reap the benefits of a warm climate and enjoy its choice fruits, without suffering by a residence in its oppressive heat.

I may here mention that my idea of the approximation of the climate of the orchard house to that of the south-west of France is not imaginary, for some of my gardening friends from thence have said, on entering it, "Ah! Monsieur Rivers, voila notre climat!"

I believe that I have more than once described my "glass-roofed shed," for I have not ventured to give it too high-sounding a name; still, as it must come into extensive use, a better name may be found expressive of this peculiar structure, which is not a vinery, or pinery, or peach-house, - • these all belong to great and grand gardens, - but a place for many fruits; it may, therefore, I think, without affectation, be called an Orchard House, a place requiring but little expense to erect, but Tittle experience and attention to manage, and yet giving most agreeable results. To the suburban gardener, who has but a small garden, which must be a multum in parvo - to the amateur with plenty of gardening taste and but a limited income, - in short, to a numerous class fully capable of enjoying horticultural pleasures, but with purses not bountifully supplied, the orchard house will, I feel assured, be a most agreeable boon. I will, therefore, proceed to give such directions as will, I trust, enable any carpenter to build one.

There are two descriptions of houses calculated for this mode of fruit culture - the lean-to and the span-roofed. I shall commence with the former, which is perhaps the most simple and most common form of garden structures.

The Lean-To Orchard House

Its length may be from ten feet to one hundred or more, according to means and space; but its breadth and height should be according to the following dimensions, unless any improved plan may be suggested which - will ensure greater advantages at the same cost.

I will suppose that an orchard house thirty feet long is required. A ground plan, thirty feet long and twelve feet six inches wide, should be marked out: then six posts of oak or good yellow deal, five inches by three, and nine feet six inches in length, or of larch poles sixteen inches in girth, cut in two and the flat sides placed outwards, must be firmly fixed two feet in the ground: the ground ends before fixing should be charred two feet six inches from the bottom, and then have a coat of boiling coal tar, which adds much to their durability. They will form the back line of posts, standing seven feet six inches in height from the surface of the ground. For the front wall six posts of the same thickness, four feet six inches long, must be firmly fixed eighteen inches in the ground, so that they stand three feet out* Two posts will be required at each end; at one end (if only one door is wanted) these will form the door-posts. On these posts, both at front and back, must be nailed a plate four inches by three, on which the rafters are to rest; the posts are thus arranged in two lines. Now, then, for the rafters: these must be fourteen feet long.

A nine-inch deal, i. e.., a deal nine inches wide and three inches thick, will make four, each four and a half inches by one and a half, of nearly so. These are light, strong, and the most economical of all. Instead of "ploughing" the rebate for the glass, which is great labor and waste of material, on the upper side of each rafter, exactly in the centre, must be nailed a slip of half-inch board, half an inch wide; this will leave half an inch of the rafter on each side for the glass to rest on - not too much for glass twenty inches in width. The rafters are so far prepared for glazing, but not yet fitted on the plates at top and bottom of the projected house: no mortices must be made, but the rafter fitted to the back plate by cutting out a piece as in fig. 1, and to the front plate as in fig. 2. They must then be strongly nailed to the front and back plates, leaving a space between each rebate of twenty inches. A piece of three-quarter-inch deal board, six inches wide, should be nailed along the top to the end of each rafter, so as to be even with their upper edges, and in this should be a groove to receive the upper ends of the pieces of glass.

At the bottom a piece of board, one inch thick and six inches wide, must be let in, by sawing a piece out of each rafter for the glass to rest on and to carry off the water. We have thus formed a sloping roof seven feet nine inches (with the plate) high at back, and three feet three inches high in front. The glazing is now to be thought of. The most economical glass as sixteen-ounce British sheet glass, which can be bought at 2 1/2d. and 3d. per foot, and the size to be preferred, twenty inches by twelve, placing it crosswise, as the rafters are twenty inches asunder. The laps should not exceed a quarter of an inch, and they need not be puttied, as the ventilation is more free when they are not. I find that scarcely any breakage takes place from frost, owing to the large pieces being elastic. On and outside the back posts, three-quarter-inch well-seasoned deal boards should be nailed. In the back wall thus formed, sliding shutters in grooves, three feet by one foot, must be fixed, to act as ventilators - two close to the roof and two about three feet from the surface of the ground, as in the annexed sketch; if two more be added to the right and left of the lower shutters, all the better: in summer it is impossible to give too much air.