e and
workmanship, very few persons in this country, outside of New York, have
seen, and such as but few of the first class builders of New York are
competent to erect.

Centrally located in the aristocratic portion of a city noted for its
wealth, taste and influence, these Graperies will be carefully watched
as an index of what the future may do in the increased demand for houses
on city lots for Horticultural purposes.

A full sized lot in the city of New York is twenty-five feet wide by one
hundred feet in depth. The ground attached to each dwelling in this case
is equal to two full sized lots, being twenty-five feet wide and two
hundred feet in depth. The dwellings front on Fortieth Street, behind
which are the yards, twenty by twenty-five feet; the Graperies, which
are twenty-five feet by forty feet; then the coach houses, which front
on, and are entered from, Thirty-ninth Street, thus using the whole
space.

[Illustration: FIG. 34.--_Perspective._]

[Illustration: FIG. 35.--_Ground Plan._]

The graperies are intended to be used without heat; but whenever
desirable, heating apparatus can be easily introduced, and the grape
season materially lengthened. For practical purposes only, and on open
grounds, it would, perhaps, have been better to have built the houses
lower; but as grapes are usually fruited next to the glass, the
principal objection to high houses for grape culture is the extra labor
in getting up to the vines for pruning and training. These houses are
purposely built higher than is now usual, to give a finer effect from
the drawing-room windows, and to secure, as far as possible, the
influence of the sun's rays.

By the use of glass houses on city lots, much enjoyment may be had by
all who have a desire to spend their time in growing fine fruits and
flowers. Pot vines and trees condense a vineyard and orchard into a
wonderfully small space, and border vines yield a harvest of glorious
fruit that surprise all not accustomed to seeing and eating such
luxuries. Our city lots, with rare exceptions, are well adapted to the
growth, under glass, of grapes and orchard fruit, and the forcing of
vegetables. There are many of them somewhat shaded during portions of
the day, yet the better protection is something of a compensation, and
besides that, it is still an open question whether sun-light is alone
essential in perfecting fruit; daylight in many cases does pretty well.

The failure to receive the sun